California Golden Bear (#23) Sammie Yeanay shoots a free throw in the first half of the California men’s season opener against the Adams State Grizzlies at the Haas Pavilion in Berkeley on Monday, November 2nd, 2026. (Photo credit Michael Villanueva)

By Michael Villanueva

BERKELEY – The California Golden Bears (1-0) started their 2026-2027 NCAA men’s basketball season hosting the Adam’s State Grizzlies (0-1) on the first Monday of November. The road to the Final Four in Detroit starts today, and the Bears start their journey. California defeated Adams State, 115-86, to start the season with a win.

California athletics enter its third year joining the ACC. Last season, Cal got its first postseason win since 2014 and had the most wins in a season (22) since 2016. Before the team’s first home game, the Bears played two exhibition games on the road. They played at LMU and Oregon State, and went 1-1 in those two games. Now back at home for the first time this season, this was the first-ever meeting between Cal and Adams State.

Adams State University is an NCAA Division II school located in Alamosa, Colorado. Last year the Grizzlies went 18-11 overall in the season. However, on the road, Adams State went 6-9, so coming into Berkeley for the program’s first time will be challenging for the Grizzlies. They play in the RMAC, Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, with their head coach Kenny Tripp. Coach Tripp would start Emilek Jallow, Oscar Sabine, Ta’Veus Randle, Ivan Dorn Jr., and Keagan Caton.

For the Bears, head coach Mark Madsen sent out Jordan Ross, Jake Wilkins, Sammie Yeanay, Nojus Industraitis, and Mantas Kocanas as tonight’s starters. Mantas Kocanas would get the start over Lee Dort. Ross, Wilkins, and Industraitis are three of the five new transfer Bears to the roster this season. Nine Bears return from last year’s season. This is also now head coach Mark Madsen’s fourth season at Cal.

Bears forward Sammie Yeanay would get the first bucket of the evening with a layup in the paint. After that, California would go on their first of many scoring runs in the game. The Bears went on a fast 5-0 scoring run and put the score at 13-7. Halfway through the first half, the Bears couldn’t miss. Especially Sammie Yeanay and Nojus Industraitis; they both were already in double-digit scoring. Yeanay had 10 points, and Industraitis had 12 points.

At the end of the first half, the score would be 66-37. California’s lead over Adam’s State would be by 29 points. The Bears would only miss three shots from deep so far, going 7-of-11. In all of their shooting categories, the Golden Bears were golden and were shooting 63% or higher. California’s leading scorers so far were Yeanay and Industraitis, and both of them had 15 points. On the bench for Cal, guard Michael Cooper would be electric and have 13 points, on 4-of-7 shooting and 3-of-4 from deep.

Starting the second half, Cal picked up where they left off on their scoring runs and went on a 5-0 scoring run. The score now after this run would be 71-37. After this, Cal’s hot shooting at home would go cold on them for a while. They would miss five straight shots and couldn’t score a basket for almost four minutes. However, what made up for the Bears’ cold shooting was their defense. Their on-ball defensive pressure would give them 7 steals and 5 blocks.

Entering the final ten minutes of the game, Adam’s State showed some fire and perseverance in them despite Cal’s lead over them being 26 points, 86-60. Two minutes later, the Bears were starting to get their aggressiveness in offense back. Eight out of twelve shots, in a span of four minutes, were all fastbreak dunks for Cal. Each dunk the Bears threw down in the final minutes was displaying their hustle and strength.

Adam’s State was still showing good spirits on the court. There was nothing much the Division II Grizzlies could do against the Division I Bears. Grizzlies guard Nathan Day would get the last bucket of the night on a three-pointer, and end the game with the final score, 115-86. California starts their season and first game at home, 1-0.

The California Golden Bears (1-0) will return in Haas Pavilion on Wednesday, November 4th. California will host the Radford Highlanders, and just like Adam’s State, this will also be the two programs’ first-ever meeting. The Radford Highlanders are also currently playing their first game of the season against the University of San Francisco Dons. Tip-off will be at 6 p.m. and will be broadcast live on the ACCNX.