By Morris Phillips

Maybe it was the friendly Hawaiian Island vibes or an abundance of holiday cheer, but either way it caused the Cal Bears to be far too giving at the Maui Invitational on Wednesday.

One night after Syracuse blistered Cal with 53 percent shooting, Dayton was made to feel at home by the Bears as well, shooting 48 percent and finishing off Cal, 82-64.

“They were fired up,” Cal Coach Mike Montgomery said of Dayton.  “I think they were probably a little bit upset with yesterday and losing and giving up a lead.  They were the better team today and clearly the more aggressive team.”

The Bears again found themselves short in the middle without center Richard Solomon, who missed the final two games of the tournament due to an eye abrasion suffered in the opener against Arkansas.  The Flyers found Solomon’s absence right to their liking as they outrebounded Cal, 37-34, and shot nearly 52 percent in the second half to pull away.

But the Flyers really took off when Coach Archie Miller looked to his bench, which produced a whopping 52-8 point advantage over Cal’s reserves.  In the three games in three days format, with fatigued players everywhere, the Dayton bench’s big night was the difference in the ballgame.

“I’d just assume they left their starters in to be honest with you,” Montgomery said.  “They killed us off the bench.  They had 15 fast break points, we had zero.   You can’t win a basketball game if you don’t run a break and get some points off the break.”

Dayton pulled the upset of the tournament in their opening win over No. 11 Gonzaga, and then dropped a heartbreaker against Baylor by a point.  But their hangover wasn’t apparent, as the Flyers pushed the pace, hurt the Bears in the paint, and limited mistakes, committing just four turnovers in the game.

“If we don’t turn the ball over, we’ll have a chance to be successful, and that’s a big thing,” Miller said of his team.  “But to their credit, four turnovers in 40 minutes is an absolute great job.”

Justin Cobbs led the Bears with a career-best 31 points.  Cobbs scored the final four Cal points of the first half, and the first 12 of the second as he single-handedly tried to bring the Bears back.  Cobbs’ final basket in the run left Cal trailing 41-39, but Dayton responded with a run of their own to push the lead back to 13 with 11 minutes remaining.

David Kravish contributed 12 points and 14 rebounds for Cal.    Devin Oliver led Dayton with 21 points, followed by 17 for Jalen Robinson, and 14 for Vee Sanford.

The Bears resume their season Monday when UC Irvine comes to Haas Pavilion.