Tag: California Golden Bears

Bad Break: Cal falters after halftime, Washington surges to 71-52 win

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By Morris Phillips

The Washington Huskies are the most recognizable thing the Pac-12 has to offer these days. Deep, athletic and experienced, UW currently projects to be a 10-seed were the NCAA tournament to commence next week.

UW is the only conference team to have a tournament profile at this point. Arizona, Oregon and Arizona State are seeking what Washington possesses.

UW’s description lies at the opposite end of the spectrum from where the Cal Bears reside. At 0-5 in conference play beginning Saturday, the Bears appeared to be the most downtrodden member of a conference collectively having a down year unlike any they’ve experienced in the last 20 seasons.

Given that juxtaposition, it no surprise that the Bears wilted quickly when push came to shove at Hec Edmundson Pavilion. After battling the first-place Huskies on even terms for 20 minutes, Cal’s offense deteriorated after halftime in a 71-52 defeat.

The Huskies staged a late rally to lead 29-28 at the break. That surge came after they missed 13 of the first 14 shots to start the game. But once UW started cooking, they didn’t cool, starting the second half on an 18-7 run that turned the contest into a rout.

The Bears shot just 23 percent after halftime, and a season-worst 31 percent for the game. They missed 14 of their 15 three attempts and gathered just eight assists. In rapid succession, the Bears saw their transition opportunities dwindle, their shooting plummet, and then the Huskies heated up. Washington went from missing shots early to canning 10 threes in the game.

“We started the game out getting stops and getting out in transition and I was happy to see that, but we really struggled against their half-court zone,” said coach Wyking Jones.

Roman Davis made his first start as a collegian. Teammate Andre Kelly came off the bench and led the Bears with 14 points in 18 minutes. Freshman Matt Bradley also started but couldn’t make a shot. He missed all ten that he attempted.

The Bears have dropped 13 consecutive Pac-12 conference games dating to February. They’ve also lost their last twelve Pac-12 road contests. They dropped seven straight overall, and in the last four they’ve failed to gain a lead in the second half at any point.

It’s not pretty. But if the Bears allow it, their losing ways could continue.

The Bears return to Haas Pavilion on Thursday night to face Colorado. Game time set for 8:00 pm PT.

Only Place To Look Is Up: Cal lands in the Pac-12 basement, lose to WSU, 82-59

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By Morris Phillips

The Cal Bears can’t get any lower than this.

In a sleepy, sparsely populated Beasley Coliseum, the Bears were supposed to be purposely competitive with Washington State, the one other Pac-12 team that hadn’t done much thus far this season, similar to Cal.

But instead of purposely competitive, the Bears were surprisingly quiet. And the two Cougars that Cal could least afford to allow to have big games, did.

Robert Franks returned to the WSU lineup after missing four games with a hip issue, and seamlessly fit back in, scoring 24 points in limited minutes off the bench. Franks scored a career-best 34 points against Cal in last year’s meeting in Pullman, including a school-record 10 made threes.

Franks had consecutive baskets in WSU’s run to open the second half that stretched the Cougars’ lead from nine at the break, to double digits, then to as many as 29 in the game’s waining moments.

C.J. Elleby, son of Bill Elleby, the former Cal player from 1988 to 1992, gave the Cougs a big assist as well. The highly regarded freshman started and scored 11 points, including two made threes.

The whole stew added up to 54 percent shooting for Washington State as they became the tenth Cal opponent to shoot 51 percent or better from the floor this season.

Meanwhile, the Bears limped along with 39 percent shooting and committed 14 turnovers. Neither number was as telling as Cal’s season-low six assists, as 10 of the 13 Bears to see action failed to record one.

Washington State broke a six-game losing streak with the win, and won for the first time in conference play.

The Bears (5-12, 0-5) are still looking for that first conference win, and they’ve dropped 12 consecutive Pac-12 contests dating back to last year.

The Bears were led by Justice Sueing with 15 points. Matt Bradley chipped in with 14, but missed eight of his 13 shots. The Bears were surprisingly poor from the foul line, making just nine of 16.

The Bears travel to Seattle for Saturday’s meeting with the first-place Huskies. Washington is currently the only conference team projected to make the NCAA tournament and that’s only as a ten-seed. Game time set for 2:00 pm PST.

Home Not Hospitable: Cal’s struggles at Haas continue in 87-65 loss to Arizona

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By Morris Phillips

BERKELEY, Calif. — Hard to believe, but the Arizona Wildcats went more than eight minutes without scoring a field goal on Saturday night at Haas Pavilion.

Didn’t matter much, the Cats led 14-10 when the drought started, and they still led 22-17 when it ended.

The statistical oddity said a lot more about the lackluster hosts than it said about Arizona.

Cal saw its shooting grow colder than the visitors in their 87-65 loss to Arizona that kept the Bears (5-11, 0-4) winless in the Pac-12. The 11th consecutive loss in conference play for the Bears left few positives. In fact, after Cal shot a miserable 34.5 percent for the game, coach Wyking Jones had little to say about his team’s offense.

That’s because Jones was so preoccupied with his team’s dismal defense that allowed 87 points despite Arizona’s drought, the Bears’ offense got a pass.

“We have to improve our sense of urgency on the defensive end,” said Jones. “It’s a major, major problem for us right now. We’re an athletic team. We’re a quick team. We’re undersized, so we shouldn’t be getting taken off the bounce the way we’re getting taken off the bounce or opening up the floor for guys to kick out to wide-open shooters.”

The 12th double-digit home loss in Wyking Jones’ 48 games as head coach was a definite low point right down to the smaller Arizona contingent of fans making more noise than Cal’s supporters. But fortunately for Cal, the schedule eases with a game at similarly challenged Washington State up next, a chance to break the losing skid.

But the Bears need significant improvement if they envision hanging with the Cougars in Pullman.

Justice Sueing paced Cal with 27 points, but he was the only Bear to score in double figures. Cal’s other four starters combined to miss 29 of their 38 shots. Connor Vanover started at center and missed all six of his shot attempts inside the arc. Vanover’s only makes? A pair of 3-pointers, and an inadvertent tip-in at the buzzer before halftime–for Arizona as the 7’3″ center attempted to secure the defensive rebound off Brandon Williams’ miss.

That basket was credited to Arizona’s Chase Jeter, who led the Cats with 23 points, nine rebounds, and was part of a huge run that took Arizona from up five at the end of their first half drought to 12 at halftime, and 26 with 5:48 remaining.

At one juncture, Arizona scored at least one point on 21 of 23 possessions. How could Cal’s defense be so porous?

“Effort is the biggest thing. We keep going back to the fact that we’re young but we’re a lot more than what we’re showing, and we all know that,” Sueing said. “It’s disappointing to see us work so hard, especially with shooting and defense being the emphasis in practice.”

Arizona (13-4, 4-0) isn’t the only Pac-12 team that’s undefeated in conference play, and Cal not the only team looking for it’s first win, but the two are first and last in the standings. Arizona has won six straight overall, and holds a half-game lead over Washington and UCLA, both at 3-0.

The Bears are 0-4, a half-game behind 0-3 Washington State. The two teams see each other on Thursday at 7 pm in Pullman, WA.

Forks Down, Forks Up: ASU starts slow, but finishes fast in 80-66 road win over Cal

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By Morris Phillips

The ASU Sun Devils came to Berkeley Wednesday night trying to forge an upward trajectory, something they could hardly claim two weeks ago when they beat Kansas, then lost to Princeton in an inexplicable eight-day span.

But 14 minutes in, the Bears’ active 2-3 zone was causing Arizona State problems, and they trailed Cal by 14. Yeah, the Bears have struggled, but double-digit leads can help a young ballclub gain wisdom in a hurry.

So how did ASU coach Bobby Hurley respond?

He turned to sophomore guard Remy Martin in hopes of giving his squad a boost. Martin fashioned his contribution in a mere, eight seconds.

The ASU sparkplug–a reserve who routinely plays starter’s minutes–sliced Cal’s lead to 11 with a 3-pointer from the top of the key. Martin would go on to score or assist on every ASU basket in the six minutes leading to the half.

That run got Arizona State within 35-33 at the break. Then the Sun Devils took over in the second half, and they handled the Bears, 80-66, the 10th consecutive loss for the hosts in Pac-12 conference play.

To the Bears’ and coach Wyking Jones’ credit, their strategic wrinkle–playing a packed-in zone to limit penetration and put the onus on ASU’s shooters–worked. ASU opened the game by missing 11 of their first 12 shots. They just couldn’t sustain it once Martin started cooking.

“What changed was Remy Martin started hitting shots,” Jones admitted. “We can’t keep the zone as tight, and now we have to go out there and guard him. We have to guard the guy at the top of the key, and it opens up the high post, and then they started hurting us.”

Martin’s career-best scoring effort had symmetry: 12 points, 4 assists in the Sun Devils’ big run leading up to halftime, and another 12 during the period that ASU extended their 47-44 lead to 77-65 with 2:16 remaining.

As a freshman last season on an ASU team that was senior-dominated, Martin showed out at Haas Pavilion with 13 points, three assists in 18 minutes off the bench in the Sun Devils 81-73 win. This season, Martin still comes off the bench despite being more experienced than his teammates who start. But the speedy playmaker hasn’t complained. Instead he’s embraced the role and perfected it.

With ASU in the midst their first half run, Martin whipped a pass to a cutting Zylan Cheatham for a dunk, a pass thrown with so much force, the point guard came out of his shoe. The video replay shows the unaffected Martin putting his shoe back on at the moment Cheatham finishes the play at the rim.

“I’m here to help the team win whether I’m starting or coming off the bench,” Martin said. “I’m the same guy and I’ll do whatever is best for the team.”

What was best, was also fast and decisive, as the Bears found out Wednesday.  In a rare, statistical seismic shift, the shooting percentages for both teams changed dramatically after halftime. Cal shot 43.3 percent in the first half, 31.8 percent in the second, while ASU skewed more dramatically.  The Sun Devils were 39.4 percent before the break, and 57.7 percent after, and get this.. they went the final eight minutes of the game without being discredited with a missed shot. All that pace and execution to end it, after all the missed shots in the initial minutes of the game.

Matt Bradley was inserted into the starting lineup for second straight game, and scored in double figures for the third straight game. The freshman guard led Cal with 19 points, Darius McNeill added 16. Bradley also summed up the tale of two halves.

“The second half, they started knocking down shots. Once they spread us out, they got the bigs going down low. They played a lot harder and a lot more aggressively,” Bradley said.

The Bears host the Arizona Wildcats Saturday at 7:30 pm.

Practice So You Can Preach: UCLA shows off new, high-octane look in 98-83 blitz of Cal

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By Morris Phillips

The latest meeting of Bears and Bruins at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday afternoon gained its origins in practice. That in accordance with the UCLA players, the Cal non-starters and both head coaches.

The familiar, starting group for the Cal Bears was an ominous omission from the philosophy, and that storyline goes a long way in explaining UCLA’s 98-83 win in which they shot 53 percent from the floor, posted a season-high in points, and methodically ran away from the Bears after halftime.

Coach Wyking Jones elected to bench his entire starting lineup in attempt to shake things up and spur his Bears to avoid a tenth, consecutive road loss in Pac-12 conference play. The reasoning, whether brutally spot-on or partially contrived had its roots in how the Bears have been preparing and practicing.

“Guys think that their starting positions are something that is given to them,” Jones explained. “I wanted to do something different. The guys that started have been working hard and giving us great things in practice, and we decided to go with that lineup.”

The shakeup actually involved just three players: guard Darius McNeill and the frontcourt tandem of Andre Kelly and Justice Sueing. Starting point guard Paris Austin was a late scratch after he was injured in practice on Friday. And swingman Juwan Harris-Dyson, most frequently used as a reserve, started Thursday and Saturday.

Meanwhile, UCLA practiced twice a day and visited the weight room daily, all a convenience (if you will) afforded the Bruins because they’re currently on winter break and aren’t attending classes. Interim coach Murry Bartow cooked up the scheme as his introduction as Steve Alford’s replacement, as well as the precursor to the Bruins playing faster, and maximizing their edges in athleticism and depth.

“Now we’re working as hard as we possibly can, which we weren’t doing before,” UCLA freshman Jules Bernard admitted.

Cal’s disjointed lineup and UCLA’s renewed commitment led to a predictable result as the Bruins became the eighth (of 14) Bears’ opponent to shoot at least 51 percent from the field, and the seventh to win as a result. The Bears did a whole lot of good too, getting big efforts from McNeill and Sueing, who each sat briefly only to play the entirety of the remainder of the game.

The Bears came up big in the passing lanes, registering 17 steals and adding four blocked shots. But that was partially negated by 18 Cal turnovers.

But the fast UCLA pace irritated the Bears, especially at the end of both halves when the Bears flatlined and allowed the Bruins to race to a bigger lead. Six Bruins scored in double figures and the 95 points were a season-high for UCLA, 48 hours after they posted 92 points on Stanford.

“The ball is moving and everybody touches the ball, we all get better. That’s what we want as a team,” said David Singleton, who contributed 14 points off the bench. “We don’t want to look good individually because anybody can do that. We want to look good as a unit and as a team.”

The Bears return home Wednesday for a meeting with Arizona State, before tackling Arizona on Saturday.

SOPHOMORE BRYCE TURNER, 19, PASSES AWAY IN LOS ANGELES HOSPITAL: Cal football player Bryce Turner, who played in one game this season, died Saturday, the school announced.

Turner suffered an undisclosed medical event during a workout on December 30 near his Southern California home.

“Bryce was a young man with a bright future and a valued member of our football team and the Cal family. His life was taken far too soon, and he will be deeply missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with Bryce’s family, friends, teammates and coaches during this difficult time, and we will do all that we can to support each other, his family, our students and the entire Cal community through the grieving process,” said Cal athletic director Jim Knowlton.

 

Fighting with Fight On: Bears battle back late only to fall to depleted USC, 82-73

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By Morris Phillips

Cal stepped onto the hardwood Thursday to face a Pac-12 opponent for the first time this season and a likely reoccurring theme emerged: Yeah (fill-in the conference opponents name, in this case USC) isn’t where they thought they’d be, but there still further along than the Cal Bears.

Nick Rakocevic scored a career-high 27 points and Bennie Boatwright contributed 19 in the Trojans 82-73 home win in which they maintained a lead the entirety of the game’s final 30 minutes at the Galen Center.

The Bears finished with a rush, getting within 71-67 with 2:45 remaining after Justice Sueing was fouled attempting a 3-pointer and made all three free throws. But USC’s response was swift, an 11-4 run increased their lead to double digits with 12 seconds to go.

Coming off a disappointing home loss to Seattle–and losing by the exact same score as they did to the Redhawks–didn’t dim Coach Wyking Jones’ appreciation for his team’s readiness and fight.

“The message was to continue to fight. That’s what we’ve been focusing on all week. They’ve got great size. We don’t. For us to even up with them in boards was something we wanted, and we challenged our guys with that all week. I thought the fight was there. We had some open looks that we normally knock down. Had we shot the ball a little bit better, it would’ve been a different game,” Jones said.

The Bears suffered a pair of humbling, 18-point losses to the Trojans last season, both driven by USC’s superior depth and quickness. So the Trojans’ misfortune in having just seven scholarship players available should have tilted the proceedings in favor of Cal. But that math didn’t account for the 6’11” Rakocevic and the 6’10” Boatwright.

Rakocevic previously set a career-best against Cal at Haas Pavilion a year ago with 19 points. But this this time he simply was at his best, shooting 12 of 14 from the floor including 10 for 10 in the second half. And neither Boatwright or Rakocevic relied on their superior height to bludgeon the Bears in the paint. Rakocevic especially took advantage of the Bears from mid-range, by methodically knocking down shots from his preferred spots on the floor.

“We made adjustments at halftime and Nick was able to get behind the defense,” said USC coach Andy Enfield of Rakocevic. “He did a great job of finding the open area. He played efficiently and extremely well in the second half.”

The only blemish on the junior from Chicago’s evening was a dustup in which got tangled up with a Cal player under the hoop. Rakocevic picked up a foul, but fortunately avoided a technical.

“We were playing with great emotion until Nick picked up the flagrant foul. We’re tired of that. He has to act better. He’s too good a player,” Enfield said.

The Bears welcomed center Connor Vanover back after his lingering issues with concussion symptoms, and he played well with 10 points including a pair of made threes in 15 minutes of action. Sueing contributed his first-ever double-double (16 points, 11 rebounds), and Matt Bradley played effectively in 34 minutes off the bench.

But ultimately, the Bears didn’t have enough, in this case, not so much due to their lack of size, but more so the Trojans’ decided edge in experience. For Cal, the issues will crop nightly, even in a year in which the Pac-12 is experiencing an unprecedented downswing that has exposed issues in nearly all of the other 11 programs, most notably UCLA, and now Oregon, who must now soldier on without the services of the league’s most talented player, 7’2″ Bol Bol who has been shelved for the remainder of the season due to foot issues.

Cal’s grim reality? They travel to UCLA on Saturday looking to avoid a 10th consecutive conference road loss, and ninth straight overall in Pac-12 play. Tipoff is set at 1:00 pm PT.

Rousted by Redhawks: Cal closes non-conference schedule with home loss to Seattle, 82-73

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By Morris Phillips

BERKELEY, Calif. — Saturday was not the Pac-12’s finest hour, and the Cal Bears’ performance was partly responsible for what ranks among the darkest days for the Conference of Champions in men’s basketball.

The Bears (5-7) fell behind by as many as 18 points in the first half, only to rally, but ultimately lose to Seattle, 82-73 at Haas Pavilion. The loss concluded Cal’s non-conference schedule without providing much belief that they can right the ship with Pac-12 play next up beginning Thursday at UCLA.

Coach Wyking Jones surely didn’t get any assurances from his team that they’ll be engaged come Thursday, not after they led 2-0 Saturday, only to fall behind 21-4 with 12:11 remaining before halftime.

“I don’t know why, but I have to do a better job of making sure that we’re ready to play,” Jones conceded. “I could see it in shootaround. The energy level wasn’t there for whatever reason, but we can’t dig ourselves a hole. Typically we start games well, but we weren’t ready to play today. We fought back, and had some energy and spurts, but you can’t dig yourself an 18-point hole and expect to win.”

The Bears got hurt in the paint, primarily by Myles Carter who post a career-best 26 points and 13 rebounds to lead Seattle. Seattle’s leading scorer Morgan Means added 24, which included a school-record 16 for 16 performance from the free throw line, eight of those in the final two minutes of the ballgame.

Matej Kavas, Seattle’s second leading scorer who has 36 3-pointers this season, missed the game with ankle injury suffered in the team’s most recent practice. But even that setback seemed to bolster the Redhawks as they intensified their attack inside where they enjoyed a 38-30 edge on the glass and scored 19 second chance points.

“We showed a lot of grit and hung in there for all 40 minutes,” said Seattle coach Jim Hayworth. “Morgan did a great job of leading and was spectacular from the free-throw line. And (Cal) had no answer for Myles who had a great game.”

The Bears were led by point guard Paris Austin with 20 points, 17 of those after halftime. Darius McNeill added 19, and Justice Sueing added 15.

Cal was one of five Pac-12 schools to lose non-conference games on Saturday, including the league’s only ranked team, No. 17 Arizona State which fell at home to Princeton, 67-66. UCLA was shocked by Liberty, losing 73-58 at Pauley Pavilion, a loss that Steve Alford said was the most disappointing in his 28 years of coaching.

Utah lost at home to No. 5 Nevada, and Washington State lost at home to Santa Clara. The league’s 38-36 record in December is the worst won-loss record of any major conference (including the Big East) in this month in the last 20 years, a fact revealed on ESPN.com’s front page, much to the Pac-12’s dismay.

 

Cheez-It! More Like Can’t Believe It: Cal drops mistake-marred, 10-7 decision in overtime to TCU

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By Morris Phillips

College football games aren’t normally this complicated.

But to introduce some historical perspective, college football bowl games have been known to get tricky, with the meeting of Horned Frogs and Bears at Chase Field in Phoenix on Wednesday clearly fitting that bill.

No football game should have more in-game storylines than points scored, but this one did, a 10-7 season-ending, overtime loss for the Cal Bears to TCU in which there were nine interceptions for the teams combined.

Three of the four quarterbacks to see action threw multiple picks (and looked bad in doing so), Cal’s Jaylinn Hawkins intercepted three balls, TCU used two place kickers to ultimately yield one made field goal, and Cal’s Steven Coutts punted nine times.

Also, Patrick Laird, the Bears’ indispensable running back carried the ball seven times then spent the remainder of the game on the sideline injured.

For starting TCU quarterback Grayson Muehlstein, who had four of his balls picked, missed on 13 of his 17 pass attempts and was briefly benched only to end the game as a decoy limited by injury, things couldn’t have deteriorated any faster. But Muhlstein was a winner when Jonathan Song connected on a 27-yard field goal in the first overtime to end it.

“Turned the ball over way too many times, but we managed to just hang in there and just keep fighting,” Muhlstein said afterwards.

The Bears played great defense as always led by prolific tacklers Evan Weaver and Jordan Kunaszyk, but simply made too many mistakes on offense. The Bears would finish with a meager 160 yards passing, but that came loaded down with 17 incompletions and five interceptions.  The fifth, thrown in overtime by seldom-used, fifth year senior Chase Forrest was returned 84 yards by TCU’s Juwaun Johnson, as big a play as possible in overtime without ending the game immediately.

“We just made too many mistakes during the game to win against a quality opponent like that,” said Cal coach Justin Wilcox.

And somehow, after Johnson’s mega-return didn’t end up as a game-winning touchdown thanks to 330-pound Jake Curhan running nearly 100 yards to push Johnson out of bounds, the Horned Frogs would need to run 10 more plays to set up Song’s game-winning field goal.

Ten plays. How’s that?

Well, first off nimble-footed TCU sports information director Mark Cohen stepped on to the field and promptly fell on his face, his sideline celebration 50 yards behind Johnson’s big return drew a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

“Have you guys ever known that, in 150 years of football that the SID gets a penalty?” TCU coach Gary Patterson asked.

Eight plays later–all runs for five yards or less, except one (eight yard gain)–the Horned Frogs felt they had drawn close enough to attempt a game-winning field goal.

But an attempt by which kicker?

Song converted TCU’s extra-point after Sewo Olonilua’s one-yard touchdown run tied the game in the third quarter. But with TCU in position to kick a game-winning field goal at the end of regulation, and after a Cal timeout, Patterson pulled Song for backup Cole Bunce.

Bunce then missed a 44-yard attempt as time expired.

In overtime, and again after a Cal timeout. Patterson stuck with Song and he converted from 27 yards.

Olonilua was named the game’s MVP after he rushed for 194 yards including the game-tying touchdown from two yards that was initially ruled down at the one-yard line.

Chase Garbers led Cal to a first quarter score culminating with his four-yard run. But despite completing 12 of 19 passes, Garbers was benched at halftime after throwing three interceptions.

The Bears would go the final three quarters and overtime without scoring another point.

San Jose State mounts comeback, but falls short against Cal 88-80

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Photo credit: @SJSUMBB

By: Ana Kieu

The San Jose State Spartans men’s basketball team was looking to pick up at least one win against a Pac-12 opponent this season. Unfortunately didn’t happen as the Spartans comeback bid wasn’t enough and they ultimately fell to the Cal Golden Bears 88-80 at Haas Pavilion on Friday evening.

Spartans head coach Jean Prioleau went with a starting lineup featuring Brae Ivey, Noah Baumann, Seneca Knight, Michael Steadman and Oumar Barry. Yes, another excellent lineup, but once again, SJSU fell short.

The Spartans won the tip and the game went underway at Haas Pavilion. The score was bad, but fixable early in the first period. SJSU trailed 5-2 at the first media timeout of the night.

The Golden Bears picked up the pace as they hit four of their last five field goals by the 11:19 mark of the period. That allowed Cal to take a 17-9 lead into the second media timeout of the night.

The Spartans, however, were resilient. Oumar Barry buried a 3-pointer at the top of the key, which helped SJSU make it a 1-point game at Cal 17-16. Barry continued pouring in the points along with Ivey, who had 7 points with 7:27 remaining in the period. SJSU trailed by just 2, 19-17.

Baumann changed the game with less than five minutes left in the period. Baumann hit back-to-back 3s to lift the Spartans to a 25-24 lead. SJSU made it a 32-30 lead and carried it with pride to the locker room at halftime.

The Golden Bears were on top 38-32 at the 17:10 mark of the second period. That wasn’t good news for the Spartans, who called a timeout after seeing their first period lead slip away in front of their very eyes.

If that wasn’t already bad enough, Cal went on a massive scoring run to take a 62-53 lead at the 10:24 mark of the period. If anything good came out of this, SJSU continued to dominate on the hardwood as Baumann hit four 3s for his eighth consecutive game hitting at least two 3s, Barry had a career-high 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting and Steadman collected his fifth double-double of the season with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Yet, SJSU was still down by 10 with 6:28 left in the period, despite shooting 52 percent from the field.

Despite the ups and downs, Baumann impressed Spartan Nation as he drained his sixth 3 of the game for a new career-high. As a result, SJSU pulled within 9 for a 74-65 deficit with 5:14 left in the period. Also, Barry recorded a career-high 18 points before he fouled out.

But things slowed down offensively for the Spartans. Well, at least for a little bit. The Golden Bears continued their onslaught from the 3-point line and hit 7-of-12 for a 82-67 advantage with 3:41 left in the period. This led the Spartans to play their hearts out, especially Knight. Knight drained a 3 to pull the Spartans within 6 for a 84-78 deficit with 1:20 left. Then, Knight poured in the points to make it a 4-point game with 35 seconds left.

The Golden Bears added 4 more points to secure a 88-80 victory over the Spartans. Cal improved to 5-6, while SJSU fell to 3-8.

SJSU returns to action on Saturday, Dec. 29 against Saint Mary’s at 5:00 pm PST.

Not Just the Shots: Cal beaten decisively at Fresno State, 95-73, as all goes south except their shooting

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By Morris Phillips

On Wednesday, the Cal Bears had 28 made baskets on 49 percent shooting, and their opponent, host Fresno State had 29 made baskets on 51 percent shooting.

Sounds like a close game with both teams dialed in on the offensive end, right?

Hardly, the Bears did little right with exception of shooting the basketball, and were beaten start to finish by the Bulldogs, 95-73. As the game approached halftime, the Bears grew stagnant offensively, and Fresno State took off, leading by as many as 25 points in the second half.

“At the end of the first half is when we stopped sharing the ball and that’s where they made their run,” said Cal coach Wyking Jones. “It is concerning because that’s how we played at the beginning of the season. I would think that we would have learned at this point that we have to move the ball to be good.”

The Bears did little right outside of three, quality performances offensively from Justice Sueing, Paris Austin and Andre Kelly. Fresno State drove to the basket at will against Cal, leading to their stellar shooting numbers as well as a whopping 38 free throw attempts, of which they converted 29. The Bulldogs also enjoyed a healthy advantage on the glass (36-27) while getting at least two made 3-pointers from three, different guys in their starting lineup.

Fresno State stayed hot, winning for the sixth, consecutive time despite two weeks of inactivity for study and final exams.

“We had six guys in double-figures and I think we had a low turnover rate until the end, we got a little bit sloppy at the end,” first-year head coach Justin Hutson said. “Cal is a 40% 3-point team and to go 3-for-15 and 20% was a big difference for us tonight.”

The Bears’ offense never gained traction, even as Cal battled evenly with Fresno State approaching halftime. Justice Sueing’s layup with 3:31 remaining brought Cal within 34-31, but the Bulldogs finished the half on a 10-1 run to seize control.

Grant Anticevich replaced the concussed Connor Vanover in the Bears’ starting lineup, but suffered his second straight below par game, missing four of his five shots.

New Williams scored 19 points to led Fresno State, he was one of six Bulldogs to score in double digits, including all five starters.

Fresno’s 95 points was the team’s high for the season, although they had scored at least 90 three times previously.

The Bears return home Friday to face San Jose State at 7 pm at Haas Pavilion.