By Morris Phillips

BERKELEY, CA–One sleuth of bears doesn’t normally differentiate itself from another sleuth to this degree.

Call it a strange night at Haas Pavilion as the Bears from California were totally outclassed by the lesser known Bears from Central Arkansas, 96-69. While UCA presented red-hot shooting and roster-wide “exuberance,” the Bears countered with turnovers and defensive indifference.

After achieving an energized start and an early lead of 12-5, the Bears flatlined. UCA scored 24 of the game’s next 30 points to establish a double-digit lead. They increased that lead to 20 at the half, then as as much as 35 in the second half before settling for a 27-point win.

“We have to go back and figure it out,” California coach Wyking Jones said after a spent more than a half an hour addressing his team in their locker room after the game. “We’re young but we can’t keep using that as an excuse. We’re better than we showed tonight.”

“I thought our effort was pretty good at San Francisco, but we went above and beyond tonight,” Central Arkansas coach Russ Pennell said referencing his team’s two-point loss at USF on Monday. “I thought the effort overall was good. And as skilled as we are, when we play hard, we’re going to make a lot of shots.”

Central Arkansas, finally enjoying their full Division I status after years at the NAIA level, where they welcomed Scottie Pippen as a 6’1″ walk-on in 1983 and saw him depart as a 6’8″ All-American, should have signaled some warning signs in Berkeley. Picked to finish 11th in the 13-member Southland Conference, ahead of only Incarnate Word and McNeese, UCA already registered one eye-popping result with a November 15 loss at UCLA in overtime in which they scored 101 points.

But Central Arkansas also lost to Baylor by 41, Tulsa by 20, and USF on Monday by two points. However, Cal has a 27-point loss to Chaminade and with seven freshman can hardly afford to overlook any opponent. But on Wednesday, the Cal Bears (3-6) appeared to do just that.

“Obviously, it’s an effort thing,” Jones admitted. “We’re much better than we showed.”

But how much better? Cal’s offense imploded again without ball and player movement leading to a whopping 22 turnovers. Marcus Lee, coming off a big effort against St. Mary’s, had just five rebounds, but six turnovers and succumbed to foul trouble. Lee played just 21 minutes.

Don Coleman misssed 10 of his 14 shots and had four turnovers. Five freshman saw action for Cal and combined to shoot 9 for 24.

Meanwhile UCA’s Jordan Howard led all scorers with 26 points and five made threes. That piggybacked his burden on the UC educational system after he put up 35 on UCLA. Two other Central Arkansas sharpshooters, Mathieu Kamba and 5’11” freshman DeAndre Jones also came up with multiple three-pointers in the rout.

On Saturday, Cal travels to San Diego State where they will see former teammate, Kameron Rooks, the graduate transfer averaging four points a game for the 7-2 Aztecs. SDSU has losses to undefeated Arizona State and Washington State, but also a whopping 31-point win over previously mentioned McNeese.