By Daniel Dullum
Sports Radio Service
Sunday, January 29, 2017

Stanford traveled to Berkeley Sunday, looking for an opportunity to take a step toward climbing up the Pac-12 men’s basketball ladder.

Haas Pavilion is always a tough place to play, and it proved to be exactly that for the Cardinal, which suffered a 66-55 setback at the hands of California.

The loss dropped Stanford to 11-10 overall, 3-6 in the conference. It was the Cardinal’s second straight loss following a three-game winning streak.

Going into Sunday’s game, the Cardinal had won three of their last four games at Cal and six of the last eight games in the series. On this day, the Bears were the better team all the way around.

Stanford’s largest lead in the game was six points with 12:23 left in the first half. Once the Bears took the lead for good after breaking a 25-25 halftime tie, they built a 15-point lead with 2:18 to play.

Reid Travis, the Cardinal’s top scorer and rebounder, had missed four of the last six games due to a shoulder injury. He played 24 minutes, and finished with a team-high 17 points on 7 of 15 field goal shooting.

Michael Humphrey also turned in a strong performance for Stanford, adding 10 points and nine rebounds. Robert Cartwright finished with 11 points.

Aside from having trouble containing the Bears’ Ivan Rabb (25 points, 13 boards) and Jabari Bird (17 points), the Cardinal had their offensive problems as a team. Stanford hit 39 percent from the floor, including 5 of 15 on 3-pointers and 12 of 19 free throws.

Cal outrebounded the Cardinal 35-28.

The Cardinal return home on Thursday, when Colorado pays a visit to Maples Pavilion. Tip-off is 8 p.m. PST.