It was a game that had a little bit of everything, good and bad. Cal and Notre Dame entered Saturday's matchup at Purcell Pavilion as two of the teams in the bottom half of the ACC standings, but that didn't prevent them from taking part in an instant classic to close out the regular season.
The Bears and Irish battled through four overtime periods in South Bend as both teams delivered blows and countered throughout the afternoon. Ultimately, it came down to the final minutes of the fourth overtime.
Notre Dame's Matt Allocco, who scored 10 points in the fourth overtime, hit a 3-pointer with 15 seconds to play giving the Irish a 109-108 lead. Still with an opportunity to take the win, Cal leaned on star freshman Jeremiah Wilkinson to get the job done but a turnover on the ensuing possession ultimately proved costly with the mishandled drive coming up empty.
The Bears were only able to pull within 1 point the rest of the final overtime as Notre Dame held off Cal, 112-110.
Cal, which had to deal with questionable calls and foul trouble, was down by as many as 9 points in the first half and never led in the second but battled throughout the final 20 minutes of regulation to pull even at 68-68 after a big 3-pointer from DJ Campbell with 5:37 left in the second half tied the game at 61-61 sparking a run to close out regulation.
The Bears controlled the first overtime as Wilkinson and Andrej Stojakovic helped pace Cal in the first 5-minute extra period. Stojakovic, who fouled out in the third overtime, missed a shot that could have won the game in the opening overtime following a 3-pointer for Notre Dame's Markus Burton, who turned in a career performance.
Burton finished the game with 43 points but struggled to score when Mark Madsen switched Stojakovic onto the sophomore guard.
Burton dominated the second overtime period and helped the Irish grab a 6-point lead, 88-82, with 1:38 to play before the Bears leaned on Wilkinson and big man Mady Sissoko to keep the game alive down the stretch.
Sissoko was able to get a 3-point play with 29 seconds to go in the second overtime following a 3-pointer from Wilkinson that ultimately helped the Bears force the third extra period.
The third overtime brought another impressive showing from Wilkinson as he scored 6 of the 9 Cal's points in the period while Burton threw the punches for the Irish with 7 of Notre Dame's 9 points in that frame.
Wilkinson finished with a career-high 38 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 steals. He hit a game-high five 3-pointers in 52 minutes. Stojakovic contributed 21 points to go with a stellar defensive performance that included 6 blocks plus 5 rebounds and 3 assists.
Sissoko was one of three Cal players to foul out but contributed 14 points plus a team-high 13 rebounds.
DJ Campbell also contributed with 15 points on 6-for-15 shooting plus 2 rebounds in 44 minutes.
The loss means the Bears are locked into the 15th seed in next week's ACC Tournament and will face the No. 10 seed next Tuesday in Charlotte. Tipoff for that game will take place at 1:30 p.m. PT.
