By Morris Phillips

What a big game on Saturday at Haas Pavilion… for Oregon State.

Unlike the more relevant Cal Bears, the Beavers haven’t made an NCAA tournament appearance in a generation, personified by Gary Payton in attendance Saturday, cheering on his son, Gary Payton II.  The elder Payton was the key figure on OSU’s 1990 tournament team, the last time the Beavers qualified.

Coming off a critical victory at Stanford, Oregon State came in tantalizingly close to breaking their 26-year drought, projecting as a 9-seed if it were Selection Sunday.

Unfortunately for OSU, Saturday wasn’t Selection Sunday.  Instead it was the second act in Cal’s resume building weekend, and the closing act in Jabari Bird’s emergence.

The Bears established an early lead and maintained it in an 83-71 win, their 17th consecutive at home.  Bird followed up his career-best 24-point outing with 23 against OSU.

“We’re trying to make the tournament so I knew I had to step my game up to be a better teammate,” Bird said.  “I’m just trying to be focused every game and be aggressive.”

Bird didn’t just impact the scoreboard, he did so efficiently, inside and out.  Along with a couple of crowd-pleasing dunks, Bird canned four 3-pointers against Oregon State and shot 9 of 14 in both victories over the weekend.

Tyrone Wallace assisted Bird with 17 points, Jaylen Brown contributed 15 points, eight rebounds and Jordan Mathews had 14 points.  The Bears broke open the game early with a 8-1 run that put them up 15-7 just seven minutes in.

The win was Cal’s 10th at home against teams currently ranked in the top 100 nationally, and continued their improbable run to the NCAA tournament that could see them go undefeated at home, but qualify despite losing 11 of 13 on the road.

With just two home games remaining, against USC and UCLA, the Bears (17-8, 7-5)look plenty capable of winning out at Haas Pavilion.  Given that, can they capture one or two on the road with suddenly reeling Washington and downtrodden Washington State up next?  To date, the Bears are 0-6 away from home in conference play.

“In most cases, and you obviously have to give credit for the opposing team for winning their games, but turnovers, key breakdowns, and missed free throws, those things cost you a game,” Coach Cuonzo Martin said.  “You can’t have those mental breakdowns at the level where it’s a close game and all of a sudden it goes from six to eight and now you’re down and you have to fight your way back in it.  That’s been our dilemma on the road, to just really execute every possession on offense and defense, taking good shots and not getting rid of the ball too quick.  We’ll get better at it.”

The Bears aggressively attacked OSU’s zone defenses with unselfish passing and driving the ball smartly, and the results showed in a second straight 80-point outing.  Just as importantly, with Wallace back on the floor, Cal’s free throw shooting slightly improved with the team converting 59 percent of their 44 attempts as the Beavers fouled frequently as a late-game strategy for getting back into the game.

If anything, the biggest surprise of the game was OSU’s defense wasn’t consistently effective as it was on Thursday at Stanford, or on January 9 in their 77-71 win over Cal in Corvallis.

“We were soft defensively, and I think there were some guys who weren’t ready for what this game was going to be,” OSU Coach Wayne Tinkle said.  “We had to play catch up most of the game, and I know we didn’t defend like we were supposed to.”

The coach’s son, Tres Tinkle led OSU with 22 points, but no other Beaver managed more than seldom-used reserve Derrick Bruce’s 11.   The stat-stuffing Payton II finished with 10 points and four steals, but wasn’t the transcendent force he was in the teams’ first meeting.

The Bears visit Washington on Wednesday night.  The Huskies have dropped four of five, including an 81-80 heartbreaking loss Saturday at Colorado.

 

 

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