By Morris Phillips

If you’re buying Coach Cuonzo Martin’s panache and confidence, then it’s just a matter of time. The Cal Bears merely need continue working and refining, and they’ll be one of the Pac-12’s best teams, and sure to find a broadcast slot on CBS and TNT’s wall-to-wall coverage come March Madness.

But first things first, in this case, the young team’s first taste of adversity in the form of two humbling losses in Las Vegas over Thanksgiving, in which the Bears’ offense disappeared against San Diego State and the defense was lacking against surprising Richmond. When the Bears took the floor Tuesday night, back at Haas Pavilion against Seattle you could see it: this was a team in rehearsal, making adjustments, as much as trying to repel any upset hopes of the Redhawks.

“Like coach said, nobody is going to give you a break,” Jordan Mathews pointed out. “It doesn’t matter what team, you just have to come with it every night.”

What Cal fashioned in response was a mixed bag, but ultimately effective. The Bears stifled Seattle on the defensive end while playing in spurts offensively as they rallied late for a 66-52 win, their fifth in seven games thus far.

The Bears were led as usual by Tyrone Wallace with 17 points, 11 rebounds, eight assists and three blocks, an all-conference type evening if there ever was one. Wallace’s overall brilliance and critical offense down the stretch carried the Bears and in part covered for each of his teammates, all of whom seem to be grasping to find their total, individual games.

Matthews contributed 12 points, Jabari Bird and Jaylen Brown added 11 each for the Bears. But none of those three managed to convert half their shots as Seattle stubbornly sat in their 1-2-2 zone conceding perimeter jump shots while gamely challenging the refs to spare them in the paint with a couple of favorable whistles. The strategy paid dividends early as the Bears missed 14 of their first 19 shots.

Late in both halves, Cal put it together, first turning a three-point deficit into a nine-point halftime advantage, courtesy of Bird’s closing run in which he hit four baskets, including three 3-pointers. Then with the game in the balance, Cal squeezed a third of their offensive output into the final 8 ½ minutes, outscoring Seattle 22-9. Wallace was the catalyst for the finish, scoring 14 of his 17 in the final stretch.

“Guys look to me to make plays,” Wallace said. “When the game is close you have to deliver, so I just tried to go out there, be aggressive and help my team win.”

Seattle Coach Cameron Dollar, a familiar face from his days as a UCLA Bruin who battled Cal in the era of Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Jelani Gardner, knew the Bears would be downright defensive, a direct result of their struggles in Vegas to corral the Richmond Spiders and high-scoring Terry Allen, who registered a career-best 34 points by parading to the free throw line 21 times to support his equally-damaging 8 of 14 shooting from the field. Dollar got all that he expected as the Bears blocked 10 shots and held the Redhawks to 34 percent shooting.

“They do a great job of shutting down lanes, driving lanes, and contesting shots, and they made it really hard on us all night to score, but we kept fighting and gave ourselves chances to win,” Dollar said.

One tangible result of the two previous losses was right there in Martin’s starting lineup as he opted to start 7’0” Kameron Rooks in place of Bird, looking for a bigger presence in the paint defensively and a guy to counteract all the physicality directed at freshman Ivan Rabb as the team’s only interior presence. The strategy worked as Cal was stingy around the rim with Rooks playing 29 minutes and compiling three of the 10 shot blocks.

“Sometimes I think it takes a physical toll on Ivan to bang and do all those things,” Martin said. “And so now Ivan doesn’t have to be that guy the whole time, and it’ll keep him out of foul trouble as well.”

The Bears don’t get another NCAA resume-builder on their schedule until they meet St. Mary’s on Dec. 12 and then again on December 22 at Virginia. For now, they’ll turn their attention to Saturday’s trip to Wyoming to face the rebuilding Cowboys at 12:00 PST.