Kansas guard LaChelda Jacobs, left, and California's Natasha Vital, right, fight for a ball. Cal hammered KU, 74-41, Friday in Berkeley, Calif.

Kansas guard Kelly Kohn, bottom, tries to protect the ball as California's Ashley Walker goes for the steal. Kohn had three of the Jayhawks' 23 turnovers in Friday's 74-41 loss Friday in Berkeley, Calif.

Berkeley, Calif. ? Kansas University’s women’s basketball team, which week after week has been receiving votes for the Top 25, isn’t quite ready for prime time.

No. 12 California (9-2) blistered the Jayhawks, 74-41, on Friday night at Haas Pavilion.

“”Be careful what you ask for. Play No. 12 … you better be ready to play No. 12. We weren’t ready from the tip. We’ve got to learn from it and grow,” KU coach Bonnie Henrickson said after a game in which the Jayhawks committed 23 turnovers and hit 30.6 percent of their shots without the injured Danielle McCray.

KU (9-2) was victimized by Cal’s Alexis Gray-Lawson, who pulled up for long jumpers and drove to the basket with an authority she hadn’t shown all season on her surgically repaired right knee.

Gray-Lawson scored 16 of her season-high 25 points in the first half.

This game was a far different outcome for Gray-Lawson than Cal’s previous matchup with KU last December, when she tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her knee. She needed surgery and missed the rest of the season.

“I was kind of excited,” Gray-Lawson said. “I’ve been preparing for this game. All of them (teammates) said that if I was going to get hurt in the second half, I might as well do something in the first half.”

On Friday, she scored 12 points in the first 11 minutes, making four of five shots as Cal began the game shooting 61 percent. Gray-Lawson shot 8-for-13 and received a standing ovation when she took a seat for good with 2:44 left in the game.

“That was so funny,” Cal coach Joanne Boyle said of Gray-Lawson’s big game. “I thought it was her best game. All of a sudden tonight, it was like, ‘Wow, she’s back.”‘

Lauren Greif added 10 points and nine rebounds for the Golden Bears, who bounced back from a 56-51 loss at Rutgers in their last game Dec. 10, and improved to 5-0 at home with their 29th straight non-conference win at home.

“We wanted to have a great end to our non-conference schedule and have momentum going into Pac-10,” Greif said.

Cal was missing center Devanei Hampton, the reigning Pac-10 Player of the Year. Hampton, who had been back in action the last two games, was evaluated in shootaround earlier in the day after her surgically repaired right knee flared up and showed some swelling.

Natasha Vital scored a season-best 14 points as Cal snapped the Jayhawks’ six-game winning streak.

Sade Morris had 10 points and four rebounds and was the only player to score in double figures for Kansas, which played its third straight game without McCray because of a shin injury. She came off the bench to score 19 points and grab nine rebounds against Cal during the team’s meeting last season, won 73-65 by the Bears.

“It’ll be good to get her back. We’ve got to wait until we get the thumbs up,” Henrickson said. “We didn’t lose this game because Danielle didn’t play. She is not ‘Superwoman.’ We had a lot of kids didn’t play who were in uniform.”

The Jayhawks (9-2) had been outrebounding its opponents by more than six per game with a 40.7 average, but couldn’t keep up with Cal’s quick tempo on offense and pressure defense.

“We got beat off the dribble a lot,” Henrickson said. “Those are things we can fix. It’s position defense. Our post defense in the first half was solid. We just didn’t guard their guards.”

The Jayhawks, who have dropped their last three to Cal, missed their first six shots and called timeout at 15:51, already behind 9-0. Kansas trailed 37-19 at halftime in its third straight game against an opponent from California, shooting 30 percent and committing 11 turnovers.

The Jayhawks broke for the holidays after the game.

We’ll grow from it. Be tougher from it. We’ll spend some time with our families now and be back in the gym before you know it,” Henrickson said.