Month: November 2013

Murray scores three touchdowns in win

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By Jeremy Kahn

After scoring on a fumble return on the opening kickoff, everything looked to be going the Oakland Raiders way.

Unfortunately, the game is four quarters and not first team to score points in the game and the game continued from that point.

DeMarco Murray ran for three touchdowns, and his backup running back Lance Dunbar ran for a career-high 82 yards, as the Dallas Cowboys overcame a 14-point deficit to defeat the a Raiders 31-24 at AT&T Stadium.

Tony Romo overcame a virus to throw for 225 yards on a 23-for-32 day and a touchdown, as the Cowboys moved into first place in the NFC East.

The Raiders scored on the opening kickoff after rookie kickoff returner Terrance Williams, who replaced an injured Dwayne Harris fumbled the ball and rookie Greg Jennings picked up the ball and scored just 12 into the game.

Rashad Jennings carried the ball 17 times for just 35 yards, and Darren McFadden returned after missing the last three games with a hamstring injury and carried the ball five times for 13 yards.

Rookie Matt McGloin started for the third consecutive week, and went 18-for-30 for 255 yards and finished off five consecutive third down drives on two scoring drives for the Raiders.

Former Cowboys receiver Andre Holmes hauled in seven catches for a career-high 136 yards, breaking his previous high of 33 yards.

Murray tied up the game in the final minute of the first quarter, as he scored from two yards out.

Jennings then scored two touchdowns in the second quarter, the second coming in the final two minutes of the half.

Murray got the Cowboys within seven points with just 10 seconds remaining before the end of the half, as he scored on a four-yard run.

Romo connected with Dez Bryant for a four-yard touchdown pass to tie up the game in the third quarter.

Murray scored his third and final touchdown of the day on a seven-yard run just 40 seconds into the final quarter to give the Cowboys the lead for good.

Dan Bailey closed out the scoring for the Cowboys, as he hit a 19-yard field goal with just 1:56 remaining in the game.

Sebastian Janikowski got the Raiders within seven points, as he hit a 45-yarder with 35 seconds remaining.

Janikowski’s onside kick was recovered by the Cowboys and Romo kneeled for the final play, as the Cowboys comeback was complete.

Stanford Has the Perfect Mexican Road Trip

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By: Joe Lami

The Stanford Cardinal wrapped up their three game road trip with a victory over the South Dakota State Jackrabbits on Thursday. The Cardinal were victorious in all three of their games as part of the Hardwood Tournament of Hope, with victories over Purdue, Florida Gulf Coast and South Dakota State.  The number six-ranked team moves onto a record of 7-1, and improves their winning streak to 6 games.

Stanford beat the Jackrabbits by the final score of 80-60.  Their first half was quite impressive as they held the Jackrabbits to only 19 points.  The Cardinal were leading 20-14 with about ten minutes left in the first half when they completely took over the game; Stanford then went on a 20-5 run to end the half.

Stanford came out of half time leading by the score of 40-19.  The game was completely in their hands.  The second half went back and forth and was really tight, but the 21-point lead going into the half would be more than enough for Stanford to earn the victory.

Chiney Ogwumike led the squad with 29 points in 29 minutes.  The pre-season All-American also added 12 rebounds to record her sixth double-double of the year.  Guard Amber Orrange also contributed 13 points, four assists and five steals.  Freshman Kaliee Johnson came off of the bench and had her second straight game where she found double digits in scoring with ten points.  Redshirt Senior, Mikaela Ruef helped out a lot as well, though she only recorded one point, she had 12 rebounds, seven assists, two steals and a block.

Ogwumike was also given the tournament MVP, as she averaged 26 points, 11 rebounds and shot nearly 78 percent over the three days.

Megan Waytashek led the Jackrabbits with 13 points, including nine from beyond the arc.  Forward Megan Stuart was the only other player to hit double digits in scoring, as she came off of the bench to add 11.

The Cardinal return back to the farm with a record of 7-1 and get a couple of weeks off for finals. They then return back to Maples Pavilion on December 14 to take on the Gonzaga Bulldogs.

VanDerveer Records Win Number 900

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stanford womens bb

By: Joe Lami

The Stanford Cardinal took on the Florida Gulf Eagles on Wednesday afternoon, as part of the Hardwood Tournament for Hope.  It was the second game in as many days for Stanford in beautiful Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and for the second straight day, the Cardinal came away victorious.

Stanford beat the Eagles by the final score of 83-59, with a strong first half showing by the Cardinal outscoring their opponent 45-28.  Three different players got into double digits in scoring; including Mikaela Ruef with 14, Freshman Lili Thompson with her career high of 12 and Chiney Ogwumike with 27.  Ogwumike and Ruef also got double-double as Ruef picks up her second of the year with 12 rebounds and Ogwumike her fifth of the year with 13 rebounds.

Three players for Florida Gulf Coast also got into double digits in scoring as Kaneisha Atwater led the way with 15, right behind her was Stephanie Haas with 14 and Sara Hansen had 11.

Though the win gives Stanford their sixth of the season and makes it five straight for the Cardinal, there was a much more important number, and that is 900.  As in the 900th career win for hall of fame coach Tara VanDerveer.  With achieving the milestone, she just becomes the fifth coach in women’s basketball history to reach the historic number, joining the ranks of Pat Summitt, Sylvia Hatchell, C. Vivian Stringer and Jody Conradt.

VanDerveer has an outstanding record of 748-153 with her tenure at the farm.  She was also presented the game ball, with the inscription of “900” on it.  Two players are still on the team when the coach hit her 800th win in 2010, with Ogwumike and Reuf.

VanDerveer looks to make it win number 901 when her Cardinal take on the South Dakota State Jackrabbits to finish off their historic week in Mexico on Thursday.

Cal regresses in loss to Dayton

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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.

Quick strikes doom the Bulls, lose 5-2

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Photo Courtesy of San Francisco Bulls
Photo Courtesy of San Francisco Bulls

By Kahlil Najar

SAN FRANCISCO -Three quick goals at the start of the third period proved too much for the Bulls (5-11-1-1) to overcome as they lost the end of a back-to-back series against the Bakersfield Condors (4-12-0-1) 5-2. Tyler Gron and Adrian Foster are proving that Pat Curcio made the right move in trading for them as they contributed a goal a piece and were active throughout the contest. Tyler Beskorowany had a great first and second period as he stopped 16 of 18 shots but it was the third that was the dagger when he let in three goals in under 4 minutes.

The first period proved to be a tough one for the Bulls as they were only able to land two shots on goal and allowed the Condors to take 13 including a goal from Jordan Knackstedt. The Bulls had the puck in the Condors zone but the puck bounced over a Bulls stick and landed on the Condors Joel Broda’s blade. Broda sprinted up ice with a trailing Knackstedt. Broda took a shot that Beskorowany was able to slow down but then it trickled through his five hole and Knackstedt was able to put the puck in the wide open net and give the Condors a 1-0 lead. Both teams played friendly for the rest of the period but you could tell something was in the air as more sticks started swinging in the air and the pushing and shoving began.

The Bulls tied up the game with less than two minutes gone in the second period. After some fierce battling in the Condors zone, the Bulls were able to keep the puck in the zone and Adrian Foster redirected a shot from Dylan King for his first goal of the year and tie it up at one. Then the fun started.

Adrian Foster was camping out in front of the Condors goal and was pushed into Condors goalie Tyler Bunz. Bunz didn’t take too kindly to the interference so he smacked Foster in the face.  When Foster tried to defend himself, the Condors Cunningham came into protect his goalie and skirmish ensued. After some more rough housing, Dean Ouellet and Jordan Knackstedt did some dancing around and some yelling at each other that earned them both 10 minute misconducts. In the span of 30 seconds of ice time, the Bulls and Condors received 14 minutes of penalties.

At 16:50 of the second period, the Bulls scored what may have been the prettiest goal of the year. Jordan Morrison controlled the puck in the center ice and found a streaking Brett Findlay charging for the blue line. The pass ended up in Findlay’s gut and when he was able to pull it out with his hand and place it on the ground, he was already being covered heavily by a Condors defender. Out of the corner of his eye Findlay saw Tyler Gron trailing and hit him with a pinpoint pass and Gron was able get it in the goal for his third goal in two days and give the Bulls a 2-1 lead. The shots were all tied up at 18 after two and the Bulls had to be feeling good going into the locker room.

Coming out on the ice in the third, the Bulls looked a little sluggish and it was obvious in the first 5 minutes that they weren’t ready to come out and play. The Condors Wes Cunningham took a shot from the point at 2:14 that was tipped in by Ryan Watson and tied that game at 2. On a breakaway seconds later, Joel Broda was able to beat Besko with a nice shot under his glove that gave the Condors the 3-2 lead. Thirty-three seconds later after Tyler Gron was called for high sticking, Broda scored his second goal of the night off of a nice face off win from Matt Thurber and took a wicked shot through traffic and made it 4-2. The Condors then added an empty netter with less than 30 seconds to go and made it a final of 5-2.

The Bulls are now 2-10-1-0 when giving up the first goal of the game and are now 1-7 at home. Dean Ouellet who had owned the Condors going into this game (he’s scored 8 goals in 11 games) was held scoreless and only took one shot on goal.

The Bulls look to turn it around on Friday when they head to Utah to take on the Grizzlies.

Sharks edge out the Kings in the shootout

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By Ivan Makarov

Before the game on Wednesday night, San Jose Sharks and LA Kings were tied for points in the Pacific Division, both at 35. Neither team showed much of an edge over their opponent in this even match up, but the Sharks went on to win it in what was one of the most entertaining shootouts in their history.

It took eight rounds of  attempts to determine the winner. Prior to the game, only Logan Couture scored for the Sharks in the shootout all season. This time Joe Pavelski, Tomas Hertl, Dan Boyle and Joe Thornton all successfully finished their attempts, but it took a while to determine the winner, as Kings had three of their players score in a shootout too. In the end, it was Thornton’s backhand goal and Niemi’s subsequent pad save that secured the Sharks the extra point and put them in the lead in the Pacific Division.

“I was begging coach to look my way [laughs],” said Thornton after the game. “It was nice to be involved in one. Down in their building it’s a one-goal game, tonight another one-goal game. Both teams compete hard against each other and you knew it was going to come down to overtime or the shootout and it did. We were just happy with the two points.”

And just like in the shootout, both teams traded goals and leads back and forth throughout the regulation.

Sharks started their game at a goal disadvantage early on, as Kings scored just 18 seconds into it. LA had the possession inside the San Jose zone, and Dwight King passed the puck off the boards behind Antti Niemi. The puck bounced right back into the crease, with Sharks’ defenseman Scott Hannan unable to clear it. Kings’ Jeff Carter was right there, and shot the puck into the net for his sixth goal of the season.

Sharks dominated the remainder of the first period, winning the shot battle 18-8, but still trailing, with Kings’ goaltender Ben Scrivens taking the most credit for that outcome.

Sharks finally solved him in the second period. Joe Pavelski tied the game early with the ninth goal of the season, winning the battle for the lose puck near the crease and lifting it to the top of the goal.

Joe Thornton helped the Sharks take their first lead of the game with his third goal of the season towards the end of the second period. It was an odd one – he was behind the net with the puck, and sent it towards the crease area, but it bounced into the Kings’ goaltender Ben Scrivens pads and back into the net.

Kings tied the game back in the first half of the third period to make it an even 2-2. The puck went in after Drew Doughty shot the puck towards the net, and it changed direction as it hit Sharks’ Scott Hannan’s skate. Both teams skated well in overtime, but it all came down to the skills competition to determine the winner.

Sharks will be back in action on Friday, as they host St Louis Blues for an early 1pm puck drop.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pro Hockey Report by Mary Lisa Walsh

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as interviewed by Sports Radio Service

DALY CITY–The win by the San Francisco Bulls in Bakersfield on Tuesday night 5-1 was a badly needed win and the Bulls were shut out twice once each by Idaho and Utah at home during their six game losing streak. The Bulls really needed a score and Dean Ouellet delivered scoring his fourth goal of the season and they basically dismantled Bakersfield after that. Bulls head coach Pat Curcio made some very quick moves and adjustments to his roster he waved Riley Emerson and traded Damon Kipp defenseman to Idaho and that’s where Tyler Gron came from who scored two goals on Tuesday in Bakersfield and another on Wednesday night against Bakersfield at the Cow Palace.

Curcio picked up another defenseman signing a rookie Kalvin Sagert and he played pretty well in Bakersfield and the other forward he acquired and Gron was the big star he got an assist and two goals in the game in Bakersfield and it’s very impressive because he actually scored against San Francisco this season but he did a lot of damage last season so it’s reason to see why Curcio was happy to get him. So far this season he’s only got points against the top three teams in the west Alaska, Stockton and Ontario.He’s a great asset to have hope it doesn’t go the other way of the top scorers  for the team who have been injured at a relentless rate so it could happen.

Getting Gron should help San Francisco next time they face Idaho on Saturday March 29th the move to get forward Andrian Foster and everybody had a great game in Bakersfield and Bakersfield is not exactly the toughest competition in the west but the Bulls really needed that confidence because they were shooting like crazy in all of those loses before because nothing was going in the goal. It seems like that might have given him a boost we’ll have to see if that works out in the long run.

The Bulls are still ahead of where they were last season and everybody on the team hoped they’d be further ahead to where they were and the Bulls are still more competitive at this time than where they were last season. There’s still hope here and maybe they can have a playoff birth.

Bobblehead promotion for Pat Curcio: Wednesday nights tends to be the lowest nights for attendance for the Bulls at the Cow Palace and this was a great promotion idea to boost attendance and they will give away bobbleheads on two more home Wednesday night games this season. The bobblehead is a great collectors item and the other two bobbleheads coming up are for Dean Ouellet and Rawhide the mascot.

So Wednesday is a great time to come because hey you get a bobblehead this season.

San Jose Sharks update: The San Jose Sharks Brett Burns is tremendous asset but a lot of the other lines that were performing well before he came back are still performing well. It lifted the team up but Burns needs a little bit of time to really hit his stride because he is such a phenomenal player so it will be exciting to see that growth again it was a tough injury he was out for a long time and unsettling and it’s good to have him back but the rest of the team is holding up without him.

For the Sharks to win the division is like a dog fight and the new Pacific Division is just relentlessly tough this season the Sharks played Wednesday night against the Kings then have back to back games versus St. Louis and Anaheim on Friday and Saturday. There are a lot of good teams out there and they’ll be lucky to get into the playoffs at all so the Sharks have a shot. The Sharks play pretty well against the Kings and the Kings are the Sharks worst enemy.

The Sharks third line saw Matt Nieto who was demoted to Worcester on Monday, Nieto made the line up and continued to play and get time as much as he did but he’s green but of course Tomas Hertl is green too but it doesn’t show. Jaromir Jagr made an interesting comment before the Devils game that Hertl’s team had a rink in the Czech Republic that was NHL size although Hertl played on international ice and he had more experience than most European players on smaller ice so that gave him a leg up and of course he’s phenomenal as well.

The Sharks fourth liners: John McCarthy has been up and down for several seasons for the Sharks. Clearly McCarthy has the coaching staff trusting him he gets a lot of short handed time but he’s one of the guys who sits when Mike Brown sits. McCarthy played center in one game last week in place of Andrew Desjardins who has sat one game and hasn’t sat any others. Their performing quite well and it’s a mix and match for the coaches on the fourth line.

Mary Lisa Walsh is filling in for Larry Levitt for the Pro Hockey report this week

49ers Report: Kaepernick could very well be as good as Montana someday

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by David Zizmor

 SANTA CLARA–We were just talking about how bad the NFC East is and no team better exemplifies that than the Washington squad their really bad and they displayed that last Monday night against the 49ers. It’s kind of surprising to think they made the playoffs last year and were kind of the toast of the league and Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III displayed his skills as he injured his knee in that playoff game last year against Seattle and it’s been a tough road ever since.

Washington is just not a very good team this season and Griffin is having a lot of trouble on offense he really has had trouble passing he doesn’t look right in fact if you look in the past game comments from 49ers linebacker Ahmad Brooks “we respect Robert Griffin he’s a good player he’s a warrior he also shouldn’t be out there, it’s just not right there’s something wrong he’s not healthy and he should take a break before he gets back out there” but you know what the 49ers don’t care.

The 49ers had two tough games against Carolina and New Orleans and the way they lost those two games was pretty tough they lost by a total of four points by one point to Carolina and three points to New Orleans and in that New Orleans game if you don’t like that penalty for the personal foul called on Brooks for the clothesline hit on Drew Brees late in the game when he fumbled you would think the 49ers had the game stolen from them.

They lost their two games in a very tough manner and everybody was claiming the sky was falling “the Niners stink, their going to miss the playoffs, Colin Kaeppernick he’s not as good as we thought he was” the offense needs to pick up the pace for sure but the defense has been playing great football and the Niners still are 7-4 right now this isn’t a team that hasn’t completely fallen out of the playoffs race. They had a couple of tough games and they were right in  those games if a couple of breaks go their way they could have got the win and everybody would be happy and nobody would be complaining and moaning.

Fans and media would be saying that the Niners would need to be doing a couple more things and “hey their winning so who cares” this is a good team and Kaepernick has not been quite as dynamic as he was last year but lets’ remember this is a guy who started only 20 football games in his young career and after 20 games former 49ers quarterback Joe Montana was still struggling a little bit in fact if you look at Montana’s statistics for his first 20 games their almost identical to Kaepernick’s it’s almost scary how close they are in terms of their numbers.

 

Kaepernick and Montana were in different eras their not one to one comparable but Kaepernick still has a lot of room to grow and you won’t be surprised and you’ll see him grow and become a much better quarterback as time passes the offensive line has struggled a bit this season that’s played a part in Kaepernick’s struggles and we all know the problems of the 49ers with their wide receivers being unhealthy.

As the receivers get healthy and they get more weapons on offense back in the fold you see Kaepernick get better, also the coaching staff needs adjusting their realizing there are some things they need to help Kaepernick with so their doing their best to make things a little easier for him. The most important thing is the wide receivers. Mario Manningham is getting better each week you saw him in this week’s game against Washington catching several slant passes.

Which you might remember back in the 80s and 90s under former head coaches of the 49ers Bill Walsh and George Siefert those were the bread and butter of the 49ers offense with receivers like Jerry Rice, John Taylor, Freddie Solomon, Dwight Clark, and many others were catching slants left and right. You couldn’t stop them it’s a great play and if you catch it and you get tackled you get seven yards and if you catch and you break a tackle you could go for a long one.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for Sportstalk radio

Raiders report: Cowboys offense good but not balanced

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by David Zizmor
ALAMEDA–It’s going to be additionally challenging for Oakland on Thursday it’s Thanksgiving day it’s a whole host of issues here with this game if you look at the history of NFL football on Thanksgiving the home team has won on Thanksgiving and those games are held traditionally in Dallas and Detroit. Detroit has a nine game losing streak on Thanksgiving. The Cowboys for the time being have been pretty good at home. The Raiders have a tall order for them, what they do have going for them is the fact that Dallas is the mediocre team.
If you look at the standings Dallas is in the running in the NFC East their a shade behind the Philadelphia Eagles in that race and the Cowboys are certainly in the playoff run but if you pay attention to the NFC East you know that even though Dallas and Philadelphia are tied at 6-5 and Dallas is not a very good team their good their just an up and down squad. Dallas has a good offense but a really bad defense and to be honest their offense while it’s good and has some excellent players, Tony Romo is an excellent quarterback for Dallas and Dez Bryant has been a great wide receiver.
The simple fact remains that this is not a balanced offense the running game is mediocre and they are a very inconsistent team. Part of that is because Romo tends to will them under pressure late in the games we’ve seen that in his playoff performances and we’ve seen that in various games just this season where he’s had trouble in the fourth quarter. The other thing is they don’t have too many big time performers beyond Romo and Bryant. Their looking for supporting players and their just not that good.
The only reason their 6-5 is because their in one of the weakest divisions in all of football and they’ve been able to feast on other teams in their division that are not very good in their own right. The Raiders go into this one as underdogs but Dallas is not very good so the Raiders at least have a chance. This isn’t going to be a super lopsided affair where Dallas just blows them out. The Raiders can make some noise in this one. This Thanksgiving your going to be watching football one way or another so definitely watch this one this will be an interesting one.
The Raiders can do a little damage and hopefully come out and make you enjoy turkey day and not depress you.
David Zizmor covers the NFL for Sportstalk Radio

Cal plays well, but blinks late in loss to No. 8 Syracuse

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By Morris Phillips

Catching the vaunted Syracuse Orangemen a hemisphere away from the Carrier Dome seemed like a good idea for the Cal Bears.

But that’s only if you haven’t checked the numbers: after Syracuse’s 92-81 win over Cal on Tuesday, the Orangemen are a perfect 8-0 at the Lahaina Civic Center, winning Maui Invitational titles in 1990 and 1998.

After beating Cal, No. 8 Syracuse is poised to win a third title, facing Baylor on Wednesday in the tournament’s championship game.  Cal will face Dayton–narrow 67-66 losers to Baylor–on Wednesday in the EA Sports Maui Invitational third place game.

“I thought we played really, really hard, really pleased with the effort,” Coach Mike Montgomery said.  “We had some lapses of things and I don’t think in that level of game you’re going to be able to win if you have lapses.”

In comparison to the Bears loss to Syracuse in last season’s NCAA second round at San Jose, this was a huge improvement for Cal.  Allen Crabbe and Justin Cobbs played tentatively, and the Bears struggled to figure out the Syracuse zone in a six-point loss that seemed much bigger.  This time, Cal played well in transition, and gave the ‘Cuse a battle, shooting 51 percent and scoring 81 points.

“I thought watching Cal yesterday that their team this year is much better than last year’s team,” Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim said.  “I just think (Jabari) Bird is one of the better freshman composure-wise that I’ve seen.”

The Bears played without center Richard Solomon, who had played 22 consecutive games, but missed Tuesday’s game with an eye injury.  Without their big man, the Bears didn’t back down, getting poised performance by five freshman in their nine-man rotation, and trailing 62-59 with 8:54 remaining when Syracuse pulled away.

“I think the problem was we had some lapses in terms of defense,” Montgomery said.  I think as much as anything, the in-line out of bounds hurt as much as anything.  They probably scored 15 points on in-line out of bounds in the zone.”

Cal was led by Cobbs with 18 points and eight assists.  Bird had 17 points and seven rebounds, David Kravish had 15, and Jordan Mathews 12.  Tyler Ennis led Syracuse with 28 points, and Trevor Cooney added 23.

The Bears outrebounded the Orangemen 30-26, but saw Syracuse shoot 53 percent from the field, and 95 percent from the line, missing just one free throw on the night.

“I like the way we fought without our big guy, Richard Solomon,” Cobbs said.  “I think we played hard and gave them everything we wanted.  Just couldn’t pull it out at the end.”

The Bears fell to 5-1 on the season, and their meeting today with the Flyers provides another opportunity for an significant win as Dayton upset No. 11 Gonzaga on Monday.