Cal’s offense disappeared in the fourth quarter and it resulted in the19th-ranked Bears women’s basketball team suffering its first home loss of the season on Thursday, as No. 15 North Carolina defeated Cal 65-52 at Haas Pavilion.

Ioanna Krimili set a Cal single-season record for three-pointers when she made her third triple of the game in the third quarter. That gave her 65 three-pointers for the season, surpassing the previous record of 64 set by Jennifer Self in 1991-92. She finished with 20 points and four three-pointers, giving her 66 for the season, but it was not enough to overcome the Bears’ fourth-quarter struggles.

The Bears trailed by just two points after three quarters and had the crowd of 2,886 behind them. But they missed their first seven field-goal attempts in the fourth quarter to fall hopelessly behind. Cal ended up shooting 2-for-12 in the final quarter when the Bears scored just seven points.

“I thought we had some good looks that didn’t fall,” Cal head coach Charmin Smith said of the fourth-quarter troubles. “I’ve got to say their defensive pressure, their intensity gave us some trouble. They kind of bullied us off our lines in trying to set screens, let alone use screens. And Michelle [Onyiah] is a big piece for us, and when she’s not in the game it’s harder for us to get our shooters looks.”

Onyiah scored 10 points in the first quarter and 14 for the game, but she was limited to 18 minutes of court time because of foul trouble, and she ultimately left the game with three minutes left because of leg cramps.

Krimili had a different take on the Bears’ fourth-quarter struggles.

“Just not hitting shots we normally do,” she said.

Krimili was 4-for-8 from long range but the rest of the team was just 1-for-9 from beyond the arc. Lulu Twidale, the Bears’ second-leading scorer at 13.2 points per game entering Thursday’s action, had just three points on 1-for-9 shooting. Marta Suarez was 4-for-14 from the field, including 0-for-4 from deep, for eight points, while Kayla Williams, who averages 11.4 points, had just two points for Cal.

North Carolina made 47.4% of its shots from the field for the game, while Cal shot 37.3%. Cal’s 52 points represented the Bears’ second-lowest output of the season and their lowest at home.

“This was really a good defensive effort,” said North Carolina coach Courtney Banghart, whose team leads the ACC in scoring defense and field-goal percentage defense.

Cal ‘s record slipped to18-4 overall and 6-3 in the ACC. Cal had been 11-0 at home this season before Thursday’s loss to North Carolina (19-4, 7-3 ACC). The Tar Heels are now 5-0 in games played on their opponent’s home court and 9-1 in all games played away from home. And on Thursday they pulled off the difficult task of winning the first game of a two-game road trip after traveling from the East Coast the day before.

The Bears let the game get away from them in the first six minutes of the fourth quarter. They trailed by just 47-45 to being the quarter but the deficit grew to 56-47 with 4:11 remaining.

North Carolina led by 11 points early in the third quarter, but the Bears rallied to get within one point midway through the third period, which ended with North Carolina holding a two-point lead at 47-45.

The Tar Heels scored the final seven points to the second quarter to take a 33-26 lead at halftime.

Onyiah led all scorers in the first half with 10 points, all coming in the first quarter on 5-or-5 shooting.

Cal’s only lead in the first half was at 2-0, although the Bears tied the score at 26-26 with 4:09 left in the second quarter on a bucket by Marta Suarez.  But a follow basket by Alyssa Ustby, and inside shot by Lexi Donarski and a three-pointer by Donarski gave North Carolina a seven-point lead at intermission.

Cal shot 44% from the field in the first half and was 2-for-9 on three-pointers. Both triples were scored by Krimili, who tied the Cal single-season record for three-pointers with her second three-pointer, which gave her 46 for the season. She had eight first-half points.

NOTES: Thursday’s game was the first time two top-20 teams met at Haas Pavilion since the then-No. 14 Golden Bears hosted then-No. 1 UConn on Dec. 22, 2018.

Cal was hoping to beat a ranked team for the third time this season, but it didn’t happen.

Cal’s 18-3 record before Thursday’s game represented the Golden Bears best record after 21 games since 2012-13, when Cal began the season 30-2 and reached the NCAA tournament Final Four.

North Carolina entered Thursday’s game leading the ACC in both scoring defense, allowing 54.9 points, and field-goal percentage defense, at 34.7%.

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