Cal Bears forward Joshua Ola Joseph takes a jump shot against the Cornell Big Red in non conference action at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley on Tue Dec 10, 2024 (@calmbball twitter photo)

Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024

Haas Pavilion, Berkeley, California

Cornell Big Red 88 (7-3)

California Golden Bears 80 (6-4)

By Stephen Ruderman

The Bears came back from down 23 points to take a late lead, but the Cornell Big Red pulled off an 88-80 win in the late minutes to hand Cal their third-straight loss.

Following their 89-81 loss to Stanford in their first all-ACC game on Saturday, the Bears ventured back out of the ACC, as they welcomed the Big Red into Haas Pavilion. Cornell came on winners of two-straight, following dominant and decisive wins over Colgate and Army.

Tuesday night’s game began as a tight one, as the Bears had an 8-7 lead just under three minutes into the game. It was then 11-11 with 12:18 remaining in the first half before Cornell opened up a 47-29 lead into the half.

It was looking to be a blowout, but the Bears showed a lot of fight in them come the second half. Cornell would open their lead to 52-29 just a minute and 46 seconds into the half. Jeremiah Wilkinson then hit a pair of threes, and the Bears would slowly start clawing themselves back into the game.

The Bears went on a 21-7 run to cut Cornell’s lead to 59-50 with 12:34 to go. Cal had fallen short after turning a 20-point deficit into just a six-point deficit against Stanford on Saturday, and they wanted to more than make up for that Tuesday night.

Mady Sissoko made a layup, and Spencer Mahoney hit a three to cut it to 61-55. Cornell kept pace with a layup by Jake Fiegen and Guy Ragland Jr., but after the Bears kept coming, and closed the deficit to 65-61 with 8:57 to go.

Cooper Noard was fouled and hit two from the line, and Ak Okereke made a layup to extend Cornell’s lead back to 69-61.The Bears pulled back within four, but Okereke was fouled and hit two from the line to keep the Big Red’s lead at 71-65 with 6:57 remaining.

Sissoko slammed one down, and Wilkinson made a layup to close it to 71-69. Andrej Stojakovic then hit a three, and the Bears had come all the way back from down 23 points to take a 72-71 lead with 5:15 remaining.

Guy Ragland Jr. hit a three to put Cornell back ahead with exactly five minutes to go, and after a minute with no scoring, Joshua Ola-Joseph hit a layup to tie it at 74-74 with 3:51 left to go. Noard made a layup to put Cornell back ahead 76-74 with nearly 3:20 left, and the score would remain stagnant for nearly another two minutes.

With 1:34 left, Jake Fiegen hit a layup to extend Cornell’s lead to 78-74, but he was fouled and made his shot from the line to make it 79-74. That seemed to kill any late hopes for the Bears to pull this one off, and Cornell won by a final of 88-80.

Ola-Joseph was the leading scorer for the Bears with 21 points, as he was 7-for-11 in field goals. Stojakovic was just 4-for-11 in field goals, but he scored 13, as did Sissoko, who was a perfect 6-for-6. Wilkinson scored 12, and Jovar Blacksher Jr. scored 11.

The Bears fall to 6-4, and they will look to bounce back against the Northwestern State Demons of the little-known Southland Conference on Saturday. Just an FYI, Northwestern State is a different university then Northwestern, though the two teams shared a very-similar shade of purple. Tipoff will be at noon on Saturday.