In a bizarre twist, the Arizona State vs. California women’s basketball game scheduled for yesterday will officially go in the books as a 2-0 win for the Golden Bears. The Pac-12 announced on Wednesday that they would rule the game a forfeit on the part of Arizona State.
The game was originally supposed to take place earlier this season, however was postponed due to COVID and rescheduled for the 16th. According to a statement from the ASU basketball team, their team’s flight was cancelled due to mechanical issues with their plane.
“ASU’s flight to Oakland on Tuesday was aborted due to mechanical issues with its aircraft. While other alternatives were explored to travel to the Bay Area and play the game, none were deemed to be in the best interest of the health and welfare of the student-athletes.”
The loss drops the Sun Devils to 12-9 on the season (4-4 in conference play), while Cal moves to 11-8 (2-6 in conference play). Rather than let the gym time go to waste, the Golden Bears quickly put together a makeup game against Div 2 Cal-State LA and played them in their previously scheduled Wednesday timeslot.
Cal cruised to victory in that game earning a 98-53 win, and accomplished the rare feat of winning two games at the collegiate level in one day, albeit one by technicality. In a quirky bit of standings management, the win over Cal-State LA counted towards their overall record, but kept their PAC 12 record intact. However the forfeit win over ASU counted towards their PAC 12 record, but not their overall record.
In a PAC-12 statement released shortly afterwards, the conference explained their rationale as such: “Arizona State women’s basketball did not travel to Berkeley for its game at California on Wednesday, Feb. 16 and the game was subsequently cancelled. The game is a forfeit for Arizona State in the Conference standings and a league win for California. Per NCAA policy, there will be no adjustment to overall records.”
ASU is next in action on Friday against Washington St. while the Golden Bears travel to Oregon to take on the Ducks.