By Morris Phillips

One night after the Cal Bears shot up Syracuse, they came crashing back to the earth against Texas.

The Bears were doomed by their early, cold shooting in a 71-55 loss to the Longhorns Friday night in the Championship Game of the 2K Classic at Madison Square Garden.  Cal missed 22 of their first 29 shots from the field and trailed Texas by 10 points at halftime.

Cal opened the second half with a brief 6-0 run to climb within 33-27, but the Orangemen responded with an 8-2 surge and led 41-29 with just over 15 minutes remaining.  Syracuse would cruise from there, maintaining a double-digit lead over Cal for the final eight plus minutes of the ballgame.

The Bears shot just 24 percent in the first half, and 31 percent for the game.

Texas improved to 3-0 with the win and played without star point guard Isaiah Taylor, who suffered an injured wrist in the Longhorns’ win over Iowa.   In Taylor’s place in the starting lineup, Javan Felix was so integral to win he was named to the all-tournament team along with MVP Jonathan Holmes.

Holmes led Texas with 21 points and 13 rebounds and he and Felix were joined on the all-tournament team by Cal’s David Kravish, Iowa’s Aaron White and Syracuse’s Chris McCullough.

Kravish led Cal with a career-best tying 19 points and Tyrone Wallace added 16.  Kravish needed 18 shots to score 19 points and credited the Texas’ frontline for making things difficult afterwards.

“You cut off one head and they bring three after you.  They’re a big team and I don’t know if there’s any other frontline in college that could match that frontline,” Kravish said.

The Bears, picked to finish seventh in the Pac-12, lost for the first time, falling to 3-1.  Cal hosts Cal Poly on Wednesday afternoon at Haas Pavilion.