By Morris Phillips

The Cal Bears didn’t look like the guy pushed up to the craps table downing free drinks until 6am, but they didn’t appear well-rested either.

In a season where making baskets and finding offense became increasingly more difficult, things picked up where they left off last week when the Bears won a close one but missed their final 10 shots.  And Colorado—Cal’s last opponent as well as their opponent in Thursday’s Pac-12 quarterfinal—showed up with a chip, determined not to get edged by a Cal team that beat them despite not making a single shot from the floor in overtime.

Whether it was poor shooting or lack of energy early, the Cal Bears scored just 22 points in the first half of their 59-56 loss to Colorado.  While most saw Cal’s 16 points in the first 16 minutes as poor shooting, Coach Mike Montgomery saw something more troubling in a game the Bears had to win if they intended to go dancing in the NCAAs.

“I thought we didn’t play hard enough in the first half,” Montgomery admitted.  “I thought they competed harder than we did, probably coming off the fact that they lost to us.  We were kind of back on our heels a little bit.  They out rebounded us pretty substantially.”

Whatever the concoction, it wasn’t satisfying.  The Bears trailed by 13 near the end of the half, then surged briefly starting the second, only to fall late to the Buffs.  The loss was Cal’s 9^th in their last 14 games and most of those were punctuated with poor starts and bad shooting.  Montgomery mentioned the rebounding (Buffs held a 38-29 edge) and it appeared only Richard Solomon was a willing board guy as he grabbed 16 of those 29 and all but three of Cal’s total in the first half.

While the team attempts to remain upbeat, Thursday’s loss likely sealed the Bears fate as an NIT entry.  Even a win would have only set up a date with projected No. 1 seed Arizona, and they merely opened the tournament’s Thursday session with a 32-point win over a good Utah team.  A pessimist might even say that Cal’s tenuous place on the NCAA bubble at this point is only indicative of how few teams this season have a chance to build a tournament resume at this late date.

Justin Cobbs led the Bears with 21 points, the 16th time he’s led California in scoring this season.  Tyrone Wallace added 13 and David Kravish had 10.

Cal’s freshman contingent had another rough afternoon as Sam Singer, Jordan Mathews and Jabari Bird combined to miss eight of their nine shots.  Bird played only seven minutes and barely registered statistically.

For Colorado, Askia Booker led with 17 points and four Buffs’ starters finished in double figures. Xavier Talton was a Bear killer with 13 points, including 3 of 5 shooting from distance.