By Morris Phillips

calbears.com photo: Cal Bears center Kingsly Okoroh takes aim from the free throw line against South Dakota last Friday at Haas Pavilion in downtown Berkeley

BERKELEY–Talk about an opening night surprise.  The Cal Bears hosted a block party, but did so without their resident swat doctor, Ivan Rabb.

Rabb, the pre-season All-American was a late scratch due to a sprained toe, but his teammates didn’t let his absence ruin the festivities, as the Bears ran past South Dakota State, 82-53, registering 10 blocked shots in the rout.

The win was Cal’s 19^th consecutive at home, and built on defense, as the Bears came within one blocked shot of the school record of 11, and outrebounded the visiting Jackrabbits 54-26.  Rabb led Cal in blocks with 42 as a freshman, but he hasn’t been cleared to resume physical activity since suffering the toe injury two weeks ago during practice.

“Our guys in the second half did of great job of forcing them to make plays, and our weak-side defenders did a tremendous job of making the next rotation, forcing them to make the next play, the next dribble,” Coach Cuonzo Martin said.

Cal led 40-32 early in the second half, and put the game away with a 30-3 run that had them ahead comfortably, 70-35 with 8:09 remaining.

“I think we came out pressing early to start,” SDSU Coach T.J. Otzelberger said.  “It took us a bit to get going offensively and once they got up on the 9-0 jump, we couldn’t come back. Same thing happened in the second half, after our first basket they went on a heck of a run.”

Without Rabb, Jaylen Brown (off to the NBA as the third pick overall in the draft), Jordan Mathews (transferred to Gonzaga) and graduated senior Tyrone Wallace, the Bears had to find some offense, and did so courtesy of seniors Sam Singer and Jabari Bird, who led Cal with 14 points each.

Roger Moute A Bidias had his biggest game as a Bear, contributing 12 points, six rebounds, five assists, and showing versatility that previously wasn’t a part of his then rudimentary game.  Martin praised the junior for his big game, and the work over the summer that made it possible.

”When I first got the job, he had a lot of work to do,” Martin said of Moute A Bidias.  “He was an athlete. To his credit, he has put a lot of work and time into it.”

The Bears were picked to finish fourth in the competitive Pac-12—behind Arizona, Oregon and UCLA—in a conference pre-season poll.  Rabb is a big piece to such a finish, but starters Bird, Kingsley Okoroh and Stephen Domingo are a big part of that as well.  Okoroh had four blocks, as did backup center Kameron Rooks.  Domingo played just 16 minutes as the starting power forward, but contributed seven points, five rebounds.

Mike Daum, SDSU’s leading, returning scorer who had 27 points in the Jackrabbits’ exhibition win over South Dakota Mines, was held to 14 points, missing nine of his 14 shot attempts.

The Bears next see action on Wednesday when UC Irvine visits Haas Pavilion at 8pm.