Cal women drawing comparison to 2013 Final Four team - San Francisco Chronicle

Cal head women’s basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb has done her best the past handful of years to avoid comparing her teams to the 2013 Final Four squad.

This season’s roster is making that increasingly difficult. They’re that good.

The No. 13 Bears will play UC Santa Barbara on Sunday, sporting an 8-0 record after coming back from a 15-point deficit to beat host St. Mary’s in overtime a week ago. The rally marked the largest comeback for the program since No. 7 Cal erased No. 20 Colorado’s 16-point lead Jan. 25, 2013.

“How crazy serendipitous is that?” Gottlieb said. “I had the same feeling in this game that no one was freaking out in the huddle when we were losing. … We still need to go out and play well for the next 20 games, but I think there are some indicators that we have something we haven’t had the past few years.”

Adding to the kismet, Gottlieb had shown video of the comeback against Colorado to her team earlier this month. What started as a lesson about creating shots against a sagging man-to-man defense became a narrative for the team.

More Information

Cal basketball games

Men

Who: Cal Poly (3-5) at Cal (3-5)

When: 7 p.m. Saturday

TV/Radio: Pac-12 Networks/810

Women

Who: UC Santa Barbara (2-7) at No. 13 Cal (8-0)

When: 2 p.m Sunday

The current roster saw WNBA star Laysia Clarendon start 1-for-7 against Colorado and grind her way back to tie Gennifer Brandon for a team-best 13 points. They saw eventual pro Reshanda Gray accept and thrive in her role coming off the bench.

Despite shooting 33.8 percent from the floor and facing a huge deficit, they saw that the team remained locked in and communicative in timeout huddles.

“Sometimes you have this memory of the Final Four team being larger than life and think everything was perfect,” Gottlieb said. “We were down and throwing up clunkers on offense and running into screens on defense, but what stood out to me was: When we were down by 15, they never looked flustered.”

Gottlieb got the same vibe from her current roster in Moraga.

Down 15 with five minutes into the third quarter or still facing a double-digit deficit with 41 seconds to play in the third quarter, Cal’s demeanor didn’t change. The Bears didn’t lead at all in the second half, needing a Kristine Anigwe shot with two seconds left to send the game into overtime.

“That was the best balance we’ve shown,” Gottlieb said. “We need to utilize Kristine as the incredible player that she is, but we’re not going anywhere without Kristine, and we’re not going anywhere with only Kristine. This was the first game that, out of necessity, they figured it out.”

Anigwe recorded her eighth straight double-double (24 points, 12 rebounds) to open the season, but she got plenty of help. Grad-transfer guard Recee Caldwell had a season-high 20 points, and sophomore combo guard Kianna Smith added 12, including a three-pointer that put Cal ahead for good in overtime.

Senior point guard Asha Thomas put up 11 points, eight rebounds and dished the assist on Anigwe’s game-tying basket. Junior center CJ West posted 12 points and 15 rebounds in 31 minutes after never playing more than 15 in the season’s first seven games.

“There is no way we win that game unless we go big with CJ,” Gottlieb said. “I don’t think we could have survived that one without her. …

“The players are not supposed to understand everything the way I do, but they have to buy into everything. I think that was a great example of them doing exactly that.”

Rusty Simmons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rsimmons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Rusty_SFChron

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