By Morris Phillips

The first person to find out how difficult a challenge the Cal Bears’ defense will offer in 2016 was undoubtedly Josh Scott.

Scott, Colorado’s leading scorer and inside presence, just happened to have his annual trip to Berkeley coincide with the emergence of Cal’s 7’1” Kingsley Okoroh, basically a skyscraper under construction, a guy who had until Friday night had done his best work at team practices. That all changed in the Pac-12 opener when Okoroh entered the game three-and-a-half minutes in and immediately made things tough on Scott.

Okoroh would go on to score a career-best 10 points, five rebounds and four blocks as Cal enjoyed a wire-to-wire victory 79-65 victory over Colorado. Cal’s front line of Kameron Rooks, Ivan Rabb and Okoroh shut down Scott and Colorado, holding the Buffs to a season-worst 32 percent shooting from the field.

“We had trouble scoring against their size, and while it was something we tried to work on, we don’t have seven-foot guys to practice against,” CU Coach Tad Boyle said.

Just seconds after Okoroh entered the game, Coach Cuonzo Martin was forced to remove Rabb, who picked up his second foul. Briefly, and for the first time ever, Martin had his two seven-footers, Okoroh and Rooks, on the floor together, as Rooks replaced Rabb. The already struggling CU attack would go on to miss its first nine shots from the field as Cal built a 10-0 lead. The 6’9” Scott found Okoroh a tough guy to get around, as he missed eight of his first 10 shots, and finished 4 of 16 from the field. Scott, considered a contender for Pac-12 Player of the Year, finished with 16 points and seven rebounds, off his team-leading averages of 19 and 9.

“It’s not easy to defend a guy like Josh one-on-one,” Martin said. “When you can defend him one-on-one, you don’t have to double the post as much. If you’re consistently having to double the post, it could be a long night. I thought we did a good job on him.”

The Bears entered the contest ranked first in the conference in field goal percentage defense, and showed that their defense will continue to be highly regarded in Pac-12 play with the considerable step up in competition. A major component to that defense is Martin’s commitment to play both Rooks and Okoroh, even though the pair often don’t impact the game statistically, they make things easier for their teammates, especially Rabb, on both ends of the floor.

Okoroh’s breakout was quite a surprise though. The sophomore from England had scored just five points all season coming in.

“Coach Martin always has confidence in me,” Okoroh said. “Today, he finally said I can do it. I hope to keep doing it.”

Only Cal’s cold shooting from distance kept this one within shouting distance during the first half. After halftime, Jordan Mathews heated up, canning five 3-pointers as Cal built its lead to 20. Mathews finished with a season-high 22 points for the second game in a row.

Opening night in Pac-12 play provided a couple of big surprises as No. 21 Utah and No. 25 UCLA fell on the road. In what figures to be the most competitive and balanced conference race in years, the Bears got a foot up on the competition by snagging its best win of the season to date over Colorado (11-3, 0-1).

If Cal (11-3, 1-0) can win on Sunday against the Utes, they’ll finish the weekend with the two most impactful wins in the conference on opening weekend.