By Morris Phillips

BERKELEY, CA–The Bears found themselves on the ropes from the opening tap in their season opener against UC Riverside at Haas Pavilion.

While the Highlanders operated confidently behind point guard Diykembe Martin, building a 10-0 lead, the Bears looked disjointed, going more than six minutes before registering their first points of the season. In front of their home crowd, anticipating a new season, it was immediately unsettling for the team and the reworked Cal coaching staff.

“Now we are playing catch-up, now we are out of our comfort zone, now we’re doing things we normally don’t do and we were just kind of scrambled and disorganized,” Coach Wyking Jones said of the opening moments of his head coaching debut. “Moving forward, I think they get it now that from the jump we have to do a better job of coming out and taking care of business rather than sizing up our opponent and seeing how hard we have to go.”

Cal would fall behind by as many as 23 points in the opening half, and trailed by 19 at the half. Despite a more spirited second half that saw the Bears reduce Riverside’s lead to single digits on two occasions, Cal fell 74-66 to UC Riverside on Friday night.

Offensive execution was Cal’s biggest shortcoming as the Bears shot just 30 percent from the field, and registered only seven assists. With a bushel of newcomers, and only two returning letterwinners–the fewest in the country–the Bears have their work cut out for them building cohesion, and identifying their scorers.

“We need to find people to step up offensively, including myself,” said center Kingsley Okoroh, along with Don Coleman, the Bears’ only significant returners. “I only scored five points and I don’t know how many (Marcus) Lee scored. We need other people to contribute — we can’t just rely on (Coleman) but we will find a way.”

Coleman led Cal with a career-best 32 points but missed 19 of his 28 shots from the field. While the junior guard didn’t need any prodding to pick up his aggressiveness, Coleman did find plenty of resistance when he attacked the basket. Okoroh contributed 18 rebounds, but seemed hesitant with the ball in his hands on the block. Kentucky transfer Marcus Lee added eight points, but was far more effective defensively.

Most disturbingly, the Bears didn’t pass the ball with any acumen, as the meager seven assists illustrated how disjointed the Bears’ attack was. Against the smaller Highlanders–picked to finish eighth in the nine-member Big West–they had some success going to the basket, but that bullish approach would be foolhardy against Pac-12 competition.

Martin, the composed sophomore guard, led UC Riverside with 12 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists. Center Alex Larsson contributed 15 points and 13 rebounds.

Among Cal’s seven first-year players, guard Deschon Winston and forward Justice Sueing were the biggest contributors. Sueing led Cal’s second half resurgence with 14 points, five assists and Winston added five points.

The Bears host Cal Poly on Sunday at 5pm before traveling to Hawaii for the Maui Classic next week.