By Morris Phillips

The environment at Bloch Arena on Tuesday afternoon may have been more challenging than the Princeton Tigers ultimately.

The Cal Bears looked wide-eyed in the first half, then seemed more focused in a dominating second half that allowed them to pull away from Princeton in a 62-51 win.  Charlie Moore scored 10 of Cal’s 44 points in a hot-shooting, second half after the Bears shot just 25 percent from the field before halftime.  The 44 points was a high for Cal in a half through eight games.

“Charlie stepped up,” coach Cuonzo Martin said.  “He made plays.  He made shots.  He got to the rim.”

“Coach told me to assert myself a little bit more on the offensive end in the second half and make sure we execute the offense,” Moore said after scoring 15 points for the game, one of four Bears to score in double figures.

With service men and women lining the court, and comprising the vast majority of the 2,500 in attendance at the arena with open air vistas at its top, Bloch Arena made for as unique an environment to ever to host a California basketball game.  The smallish venue at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickham is hosting holiday, college basketball for the second consecutive year.  The event this year marks the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, an attack that Bloch Arena miraculously survived.

Instead of the Oklahoma-Villanova Final Four preview that highlighted last year’s event, this one started with the Bears and the Tigers attempting to overcome awful shooting from the game’s outset.  At one point, during the first half, Princeton missed 14 consecutive shots.  But the Bears fell cold at the half’s conclusion, and the Tigers led 20-18 at the break.

In the second half, Cal surged behind Jabari Bird, playing for the first time in six games after his bout with back spasms.  Bird scored 11 of his 13 after halftime, and the Bears made their final 16 of 24 shots from the field to turn the tide.

Meanwhile the Tigers went cold after taking their final lead, 46-44, with 7:45 remaining on Henry Caruso’s three.  At that point, Cal responded with an 11-1 run to put the game away.

“They made some really big plays down the stretch,” Princeton coach Mitch Henderson said.  “About three or four big plays and we really struggled in that little window there and that was the difference in the game.”

Sam Singer and Grant Mullins, who missed the previous game against Alcorn State due to a death in his family, scored 11 points each.  Devin Cannady led Princeton with 16 points, but missed 11 of his 15 shots from the field.  Spencer Weisz added 10 for the Tigers.

Ivan Rabb had a quiet game offensively.  The 6’10” forward missed his first five shots, and finished with a season-low six points.  But Rabb had 10 rebounds, and contributed to the Bears huge disparity on the glass (49-33) and points in the paint (34-12).

The Bears return to Bloch Arena Wednesday afternoon to face Big East opponent, Seton Hall.  The Pirates got past Hawaii in Tuesday’s nightcap, 68-57, as Angel Delado scored 16 points.