Cal loses to UC Davis for the first time ever in rough season debut

Over the last 100-plus years, all the way back to the 1917-18 season, Cal has generally had its way with UC Davis on the basketball court. The Golden Bears had won the first 33 meetings between the programs.

Until Monday night.

UC Davis dealt the Bears a stunning season-opening setback with a 75-65 win over Cal at Haas Pavilion.

For all the confidence coach Mark Fox has projected for this team and the new pieces that give the Bears what he feels is more depth and athleticism across the roster, it was clear Monday that that puzzle is still being assembled.

"You just talk about the connectivity of a team, their team tonight was way ahead of where our young group is. ... We're going to have to grow up fast," Fox said afterward.

UC Davis outrebounded Cal 40-34, shot 48.2 percent from the field (to Cal's 38.1 percent) and generally controlled most of the game from start to finish, responding to the one challenge the Bears mounted in the second half.

"Obviously, very disappointing for us. They have a good team. We have to give them credit," senior center Lars Thiemann said.

Cal trailed by as much as 32-21 midway through the first half, setting the tone for the game. To the Bears' credit, they did rally, getting to within 41-36 at halftime and then later reeling off 8 straight points to tie it at 51-51 midway through the second half.

Devin Askew, the high-profile transfer guard from Texas (and previously Kentucky) who was a top-50 national prospect out of high school, scored 6 of the 8 points in that stretch, including the tying basket on a tough drive from the perimeter and a high bank off the backboard and through the net while being fouled.

He missed the go-ahead free throw, but freshman forward Grant Newell followed soon with a 3-pointer to put the Bears ahead 54-53.

A 3-pointer from Kuany Kuany and a Newell layup pushed the Cal lead to 60-54 with just over 10 minutes to play.

And then ... the Bears collapsed, failing to make a field goal over the next nearly 8 full minutes while UC Davis went on a game-seizing 17-1 run.

"We've got to learn how to play with a lead. We got sped up, didn't take the right shots. We have to look at the film and see what went wrong," Thiemann said.

"I thought both teams really played hard. I think the experience and maturity of their team really showed early in the game. We had to play from behind, and when we came back and took the lead we just had a couple awful offensive possessions that led to baskets for them and then never recovered," Fox said. "I'm disappointed how we defended in the second half, and I thought offensively our inexperience really showed in the second half."

As for the rebounding struggles ...

"I think that rebounding is a lot of want-to. You've got to be willing to be physical in the paint. You've got to be alert to the miss. I'm extremely disappointed in how we've rebounded the ball in our exhibition game and how we rebounded it tonight," Fox said.

Needless to say, he has a lot to work on with this team before Kansas State visits Haas Pavilion on Friday.

Askew led Cal with 19 points and 4 assists (with 3 turnovers) on 7-of-20 shooting (1 of 6 from 3-point range). Thiemann had 17 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals while making 7 of 11 shots, but he also turned it over 5 times. Kuany chipped in 10 points and Newell scored 8 in his Bears debut.

Senior guard Joel Brown got the start with transfer DeJuan Clayton out with injury and hit just 2 of 10 shots for 5 points and 7 rebounds, while mostly yielding the point guard duties to Askew.

While Fox has been especially confident about the potential of this team, the Bears' first performance fit closer to the outside expectations for this team, as they were picked 11th out of 12 teams in the Pac-12 preseason poll.

It's just one game, but there were not a lot of positives to cling to Monday night.

"We've got Joel playing in a position that's not real natural for him until we can get healthy, and then our new guys just aren't quite comfortable yet. So offensively we had some struggles," Fox said. "I thought we missed Lars a couple of times in the low post, and as we develop offensively we can't miss those opportunities. But give their defense credit too, but we're not quite in rhythm there yet. We've got a lot of new guys who are trying to figure out what role they're going to have offensively. But I was disappointed in that in the second half for sure."