Cal bounced back from its first loss of the season with a convincing victory Monday night to open the second week of action. Newcomers Jalen Cone and Jaylon Tyson helped pace the Bears in different ways leading to an 83-63 victory over visiting Cal State Bakersfield at Haas Pavilion.
Cone led the way with 23 points and each of his seven field goals came from 3-point range on a big night from deep for the Bears (2-1). In all, Cal hit 15 3-pointers on 36 attempts to secure the win on a night when the team connected on only 12 field goals in 2-point range.
While Cone's impressive performance shooting the ball was a highlight, Tyson found a way to make an impact in a variety of ways and nearly finished with a triple double in the win.
The Texas Tech transfer, who made his Cal debut last week Friday night in a loss to Pacific, finished the game with 13 points to go with a game-high 12 rebounds and 7 assists.
For a time it looked like Cal might be in for another battle much like in its first two games of the season. The game was tied with 10:50 to play in the first half, but around that time the Bears went on the first of several runs in the game.
Over the final half of the opening period, Cal hit seven 3-pointers, including four for Cone, to take a 15-point lead into the locker room.
That burst to end the first half would eventually be all Cal needed to take control and never give it back to the Roadrunners.
The Bears never trailed in the second half and pushed their lead to as many as 23 points as there were too many dry spells for CSUB to make a big enough dent in that lead.
The Roadrunners used a 7-1 run out of halftime to close the gap to just 9 points with 16:14 left to play, but it would not take long for the Bears to push their lead back up to 16 points thanks to an 8-2 run that featured contributions from big man Fardaws Aimaq, point guard Devin Askew and Tyson.
Aimaq finished with 14 points, 7 rebounds and a pair of assists in 23 minutes as he fouled out with just under 6 minutes to play. It marks his third consecutive game with at least 14 points and 7 rebounds.
Askew hit two 3-pointers and contributed with 12 points to go along with 4 rebounds and 4 assists. All five Bears starters scored in double figures with Grant Newell contributing 10 points and 8 rebounds in 31 minutes.
Cal dominated the offensive glass (17-7) in the win and finished with an impressive 45-33 rebounding advantage. Five players had at least 4 rebounds for the Bears in the win.
The first home stretch for the Bears will come to a close Thursday when they host Montana State at 8 p.m. before heading down south to Orange County to take part in the SoCal Challenge that begins with a matchup against UTEP on Nov. 20.
