On Saturday, Cal men’s basketball defeated the Washington Huskies 61-58 in overtime. Cal sophomore guard Matt Bradley led the way for the Golden Bears with 17 points and 5 rebounds while junior forward Grant Anticevich had 13 points and 7 rebounds. Washington freshman forward Isaiah Stewart led the way for the Huskies with 13 points and 6 rebounds. Cal improves to 8-8 overall and 2-1 in the Pac-12 while Washington falls to 11-6 overall and 1-3 in the Pac-12. Cal has a winning record in Pac-12 play through three games for the first time since the 2015-16 season.
“Just a great Pac-12 game,” Cal head coach Mark Fox said in his opening post-game remarks. “I think Washington, I think Mike [Hopkins] has done an amazing job. When you beat a team that’s that good, you feel good about your own team. Because they have a really good ball club and our kids had to play as complete of a game as we’ve played since I came and I’m really proud of our team.
“We don’t win today without the crowd that was here. We don’t win the game without them. So, I thank them for delivering when they did with energy. Now I don’t want to have to ask them to stand up and scream and holler. But when I did, they delivered and we don’t win the game without them. Because we had two guys play over 40 minutes [Bradley & Anticevich] and were fatigued. But when there’s that kind of support coming from your crowd, it’s really important and today it was an advantage for us for sure.”
Cal got off to a solid start in this game, leading 7-6 with 14:39 to go in the half. Matt Bradley was on the board with 3 points, finding a groove early for Cal. As for Washington, freshman forward Jaden McDaniels and junior guard Nahziah Carter each had 3 points. Cal was shooting 3-9 from the field while Washington was shooting 2-8.
With 10:34 to go in the half, Cal was up 15-12. Bradley was up to 5 points, continuing to be in a groove. As for Washington, they had scored all of their points from beyond the arc on 4-8 shooting from deep. Cal seemed to be giving them those and Washington to their credit was taking advantage.
With 6:20 to go in the half, Cal was up 19-15 as Bradley was still the top scorer for the Golden Bears with 5 points and 2 rebounds. Washington continued their 3-point shooting contest as they now had made five threes on eleven attempts. Weird wild stuff.
With 5:18 to go in the half, Cal was up 21-17 as Andre Kelly got a pretty fadeaway jumper to fall. Cal’s front court did a nice job of attacking Washington’s zone, finding the right holes that gave them space to shoot. With 3:51 to go in the half, Cal still led up 21-18 as Washington finally had scored in a way other than hitting a 3-pointer. Cal was holding Washington’s top player Isaiah Stewart to 2 points, doing a fantastic job on him.
“Yeah, we played one and a half men on him,” Bradley said of how they defended Stewart. “When he got it, we made sure somebody was digging off. And that worked. It got him really frustrated. I caught an elbow to the mouth for it. It was really chippy, so it worked out. We played one and a half guys on him and that’s what happened.”
“Well, he’s an amazing player,” Fox added about defending Stewart. “I think we threw a lot of guys at him. I put Lars in, I put Andre in, and I put DJ in, and I did it again and we rotated a fresh big strong body on him. We sent a couple double teams to him, but he’s a handful. Matt said it was chippy. It was just physical. It was a well-officiated game from that regard. It was just physical. And so, hard fought, but he obviously was a key and we’re fortunate that we kinda slowed him down a little bit in the first half. I didn’t think we did as good a job in the second.”
Up 26-20 with 47.5 to go in the half, Cal was looking to not let their hard work go to waste. Anticevich was up to 7 points, continuing to attack the Huskies’ zone. Cal would indeed finish the half strong as Paris Austin made a clutch layup in transition to give Cal a 28-20 lead at the half.
Cal started off the second half strong, leading 35-27 with 15:55 to go. Bradley was up to 10 points while Anticevich had 9 points. Both guys were going a great job at giving Cal much-needed offense. One adjustment Washington was making was starting to clamp down on the middle when Cal’s players got the ball inside. It’s surprising they didn’t do a better job of this in the first half, but they were just starting to figure this out, hoping it would reverse their fortunes.
A corner jumper from Anticevich gave Cal a 39-29 lead with 14:25 to go. Anticevich was up to 11 points and 4 rebounds, continuing to ball out. With 11:27 to go, Cal now led 41-34 as a triple from McDaniels cut Cal’s lead to 7 points. He was up to 8 points, doing his part to get the Huskies back in the game. Washington was out-rebounding Cal 31-26, trying to beat Cal inside with their physicality.
“Having played against them, for me the past two years, they run especially defensively similar type of zones, so it’s something that you’re used to,” Anticevich said of having seen Washington’s zone the past couple of years. “And so it’s something that you’re used to and I feel like they play zone really well. So once you get, like once you play them the first time you get a little bit of experience from it, so I feel like it gives you a bit of backing and going it when you play it again. Kinda get used to that, the way they play it. Where the gaps are.”
Over the next few minutes, Cal’s lead would shrink as they would now lead 43-41 with 6:39 to go. Cal had 0 points in the last 2:28 due to a lot of isolation ball. Cal had to move it better. McDaniels (10 points) and Stewart (9 points) were starting to figure it out for Washington after quiet first half performances.
With 5:30 to go, Cal led 47-45 after a clutch jumper from Austin after Stewart made two foul shots. This game was going down to the wire. With 4:14 to go, the game was now tied 47-47 after McDaniels got a bucket to go in the paint. Washington would then go up 49-47 after an alley-oop from Jamal Bey, but Cal would respond with a nice layup inside from Kareem South. With 2:10 to go, the game was once again tied at 49 apiece.
With under a minute to go, both teams had a chance to break the tie, but failed to do so. Washington failed to get a bucket to go on one-end while Cal failed to capitalize on the other end after Bradley failed to score. As a result, this game went to overtime with both teams tied 49-49. During the final 3:33 of regulation, Washington had 0 points, getting into a real funk offensively. Their hope was that coming out of the quick break, their offense would find some much needed life.
Overtime started with South and Bey trading 3-point shots. Making it a 52-52 game with 4:08 to go. Four quick points from Austin gave Cal a 56-52 lead before South got called for a foul that sent Carter to the line. Carter made both foul shots, cutting Cal’s lead to two points. Bradley would strike back for Cal to give them a 58-56 lead before Anticevich fouled Carter on a 3-point attempt. Carter would make two of three foul shots and now the game was once again tied 58-58 with under one minute to go. Cal had the ball and opted to let Bradley take the game winning shot. He banked it in from deep to give Cal a 61-58 lead with 7 seconds to go. Washington was unable to respond and in the end, Cal walked out with a 61-58 overtime win. It was a wild win, but one that was the result of good defensive play and timely shooting.
“McDaniels, he’s really tall, really long,” Bradley said as he walked everyone through that final shot. “I knew coach told me how to work out, try to get a shot off. If not, Paris and I believe Grant was coming off another screen and second half I had the same opportunity, which I trusted Grant. He took a really good shot, we end up missing, overtime. And I was like let me just give and go. I made it.”
“It’s as pretty as a sunset that you wish you could watch that thing for 30 minutes,” Fox said of Bradley’s game-winner. “But it happens in like two seconds. It was a thing of beauty. As hard as he’s worked and as much as he’s bought in, he deserved to have that thing go down.”
Ultimately for Cal, this game went as well as they could hope. They came in as 6.5 point underdogs and showed that they are capable of beating quality Pac-12 competition. Even though Washington has been grossly underachieving this year, they’re still a very talented team. For Cal to beat a more talented team like they did has to feel good and is a sign of real progress.
“Definitely feels a lot different,” Bradley said of getting a couple of Pac-12 wins early. “I mean, last year, we fought hard every game. We’re coming off in the beginning of the Pac-12 with two great wins and we’re just going to keep moving forward. We know every game is going to be a tough one. We’ll celebrate this one tonight and then in practice the next time, we’re going to work for the next one.”
“I think this win was more about the investment that we’ve demanded that these kids make,” Fox added. “And that late in the game, it just meant a lot to our team to dig in. Whether it’s on offense or defense. To make the plays that we needed to make. Our defense obviously tonight was very good, but the play that hopefully everyone will talk about will be a basket that went in to win it. It wasn’t a defensive play. But, I think these kids have, they’ve been through a lot and we’ve demanded a lot and I think at the end, they just felt like you know what? We’ve invested a ton in our own team and we need to make these plays. And tonight we’re fortunate that we did.”
Up next for Cal is a road trip to Southern California. They’ll face USC on Thursday night at 7:30 PM PST on Pac-12 Networks.
Note: Juhwan Harris-Dyson (hand) and Jacobi Gordon did not play for the second straight game. Mark Fox said their status going forward remains up-in-the-air.
