Cal nearly gets first 100-point game of season in rout

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Oh, how fitting.

The Cal women’s basketball team nearly got its first 100-point outing of the season Sunday afternoon in a 96-63 blowout over Lehigh that also happened to be senior Courtney Range’s 100th game with the Bears.

Cal had 84 points when Kristine Anigwe went to the bench with 26 points and 11 rebounds and 5:24 on the clock, and the Bears were up to 89 points when Range joined Anigwe as a spectator at the 3:23 mark, with 16 points.

The Bears (9-0), who exteded the program’s best-ever start, scored only four points in the final 2:43 to finish just short of the school’s 22nd 100-point game. Cal had a program-record 117 points against Sacramento State last December and last reached the 100-point mark that same month, when it beat Cal State Northridge by 62 points.

“There’s been a lot of growth from the end of the year last year, to spring, to summer, to our 30-day boot camp and from our first game to now,” Range said. “I feel like we’re developing really well. I still feel like there is a lot more that we can do.”

Head coach Lindsay Gottlieb said she’d still like the players to continue to develop mental toughness and to perfect each of their mixing defenses before the Pac-12 schedule begins Dec. 29.

“Our goals are shifting as we go, and now we want to win all of them,” Gottlieb said.

The Bears’ trouncing of Lehigh (5-6) was quite a follow-up to Thursday’s win, which secured the school’s best-ever start and which was highlighted by Anigwe’s 50 points.

This time, Anigwe went 12-for-14 in 23 minutes and received plenty of help. Along with Range’s 16 points, the Bears got 16 points and eight rebounds from Penina Davidson and 11 points and nine assists from Asha Thomas.

Lehigh was led by Oakland native Quinci Mann’s 23 points.

Cal shot 60 percent from the floor, dished out 29 assists to 14 turnovers and outrebounded the Mountain Hawks by nine. The Bears did not trail.

Cal rushed to an 18-1 lead, holding Lehigh without a field goal for the game’s opening six minutes. The Mountain Hawks were 0-for-7 from the floor with four turnovers when they finally got a basket.

After Lehigh scored on back-to-back possessions, the Bears ripped off a 15-0 run to extend their lead to 33-6 in the first minute of the second quarter. Cal maintained a lead of at least 20 points throughout the second quarter, going into the locker room up 50-25 and outrebounding Lehigh 29-15.

Bernadette Devaney made three three-pointers in the final 2:14 of the third quarter, but Range halted the spurt by converting a four-point play that sent Cal into the fourth quarter with a 77-51 lead. The only drama during the final period was whether the Bears would get to 100 points.

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