BERKELEY, Calif.–UC San Diego women's basketball dropped a hard-fought contest at California, 75-61, on Friday evening in Haas Pavilion. The Tritons (2-6) moved to 1-5 in the all-time series with the Golden Bears (8-2). 
 
Parker Montgomery matched her career high with 19 points, adding two rebounds, two assists and two steals. Sydney Brown also finished in double-figures with 13 points and Izzy Forsyth added nine. Brown led the Tritons with four rebounds and Katie Springs added three. Grace Talbot tallied a team-high four assists.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Tritons got off to a slow start in the opening quarter, falling behind 13-2 early. UC San Diego then forced some late turnovers and went on a 9-0 run to close out the period and bring the Tritons within one, 14-15. 
 
UC San Diego carried the momentum into the second quarter, taking the lead, 17-15. Midway through the period, Cal put together a 6-0 run to retake lead, 26-21. The Tritons answered with a run of their own, scoring seven unanswered to lead 28-26 with 3:51 to play in the half. UC San Diego held the one-point lead with under two minutes to go, but the Golden Bears went on a 9-0 to close out the period and take a 37-29 lead into the halftime break.
 
The Tritons chipped away at the deficit to begin the third quarter and a timely three by Forsyth cut the Cal lead down to six, 43-37, with 6:26 on the clock. The Bears responded with a 7-2 run to build the lead to double-digits, 50-39. UC San Diego continued to battle, but Cal took a 56-44 lead into the final quarter break. 
 
UC San Diego kept pace with the Bears in the final period but were unable to put together a run. Cal held the scoring edge 19-17 in the final period and took the contest, 75-61.
 
QUOTABLE
"I was proud of the way our team competed," said head coach Heidi VanDerveer. "We have talked about that all preseason, and I thought for 25 minutes we gave great effort and executed. We needed to rebound better defensively—they had 20 O-boards—Cal is big and they have some very good athletes that kind of got away from us at times. But I thought when we executed our game plan, we were solid.
 
I was really proud of the way Parker Montgomery competed—not just with her scoring but she really defended and gave us a chance to compete. I'm also very proud of Junae Mahan, she came in and gave us great minutes and we saw glimpses of how good she can be.
 
The challenge for us is to build on those positives and continue to get better as we prepare for the Big West."
 
TRITON TIDBITS

• Parker Montgomery matched her career high, finishing with 19 points. She also scored 19 against Cal Poly (March 5, 2022).
• Sydney Brown scored in double-figures for the seventh time this season.
• The Tritons committed fewer turnovers (13-19) and capitalized on points off of those turnovers (18-12). UC San Diego also held the advantage beyond the arc with eight threes (28.6%), compared to four for Cal (30.8%).
• California outrebounded the Tritons, 52 (20 OR) to 23, and outscored UC San Diego in the paint (42-24). The Bears held the advantage in second chance points 15-0 and field goal percentage 48.5% to 37.3%.
• UC San Diego starters were Sydney Brown, Emily Cangelosi, Bridget Mullings, Julia Macabuhay and Parker Montgomery. The Tritons' third different lineup of the season.

UP NEXT
UC San Diego will wrap but its Bay Area road trip on Sunday when the Tritons face San Jose State at 5 p.m. A live stream and live statistics will be available via UCSDTritons.com.
 
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of The Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 83 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.