On Sunday, Cal men’s basketball defeated the San Francisco Dons 72-70 after a buzzer beating 3-pointer by grad transfer guard Makale Foreman. It was Foreman’s only made basket of the game. Junior forward Andre Kelly (22 points & 7 rebounds) and senior forward Grant Anticevich (18 points & 7 rebounds) led the way for the Golden Bears while guards Jamaree Bouyea (24 points) and Khalil Shabazz (21 points) were the top performers for the Dons. Cal improves to 3-4 overall (0-2 in Pac-12) while San Francisco falls to 5-3 overall (0-0 in the WCC).
“A great win versus an established program,” Cal head coach Mark Fox said after the game. “So when you beat a good team, you should feel good about it. I think our resiliency showed and to win the game the way we did, that’s one of the magical parts of college basketball.”
Cal rolled with a four guard lineup to start the game consisting of Ryan Betley, Joel Brown, Makale Foreman, and Matt Bradley. Grant Anticevich was the lone forward to start the game for the Bears. The decision to start four guards backfired as San Francisco got out to a 10-5 lead with 16:06 to go in the half. Jamaree Bouyea was up to 5 points for the Dons on 2-2 shooting from the field.
Things continued to go the Dons way as they would lead 17-5 with 12:44 to go in the half. Bouyea was up to 7 points on 3-3 shooting from the field. The Dons as a team were shooting 6-9 from the field and 3-4 from 3-point range. With 11:53 to go in the half, San Francisco led 17-7 after Anticevich got a much needed jumper to fall for Cal.
With 7:47 to go in the half, San Francisco led 21-13. Kelly was starting to get going a bit for the Bears with 4 points off a couple baby hooks. It was a 2:11 scoring drought for the Dons. Cal was trying to capitalize.
Cal continued to inch their way back into the game as San Francisco would lead 28-22 with 3:29 to go in the half. Bouyea and Shabazz each had 11 points for the Dons, doing their part to help their team. Anticevich (11 points) and Kelly (8 points) were the two players getting the Bears back in the game. Bradley had a quiet 3 points, not having the type of impact that he was hoping to have. It was clear at this point, that Mark Fox’s decision to go small was the wrong one. To his credit, he quickly recognized that, rolling with Kelly and Anticevich in the frontcourt.
Right as Cal started to feel like they might get back in this game, Jamaree Bouyea hit a huge half-court shot to beat the buzzer before halftime. As a result, San Francisco led 37-29 at the half. Bouyea was up to 15 points on 6-9 shooting from the field and 2-4 shooting from deep, leading the charge for the Dons. As for Cal, it was Grant Anticevich (14 points) and Andre Kelly (12 points) that were keeping them afloat.
Learning from the first half, Fox decided to start Anticevich and Kelly in the second half, realizing that his two forwards were giving the Dons a lot of problems. With 15:12 to go, San Francisco maintained a 44-37 cushion. Cal was hanging tough, but had to find a way to contain Bouyea, who was up to 22 points. Cal was practically letting him score at will, especially in transition. It was like layup lines out there as he would quickly speed down the court for the easy finish.
With 11:39 to go, San Francisco led 51-50 as Anticevich (16 points) and Kelly (15 points) had the Bears right on the Dons’ heels. The two of them were having their way inside. As for Bradley, he was waking up with 11 points.
In the next possession, Julian Rishwain got fouled by Matt Bradley attempting a 3-point shot. Rishwain made all three foul shots, giving the Dons a 54-50 lead with 11:27 to go. It was Bradley’s second time fouling a 3-point shooter and even worse, it was his 4th foul of the game. Mark Fox had a difficult decision to make and decided to that he needed to give Bradley a bit of a break, not wanting to risk him picking up his 5th foul.
With 7:58 to go, San Francisco led 56-52 as Bradley checked back into the game. Cal was hoping to get over the hump in the final stretch. A huge 3-pointer from Rishwain gave the Dons a 62-54 lead with 5:29 to go. Cal needed to get some stops if they were going to pull this game out.
With 4:32 to go, Matt Bradley would cut the Dons’ lead to two points (62-60) after a huge 4-point play. Cal really had some life now. Unfortunately for the Bears, Dzmitry Ryuny struck back with a 3-pointer to give the Dons a 65-60 lead with 3:53 to go. Joel Brown would go to the foul line and miss both foul shots, failing to cut the lead to three points.
With 1:43 to go, San Francisco would lead 70-66. Kelly hit some clutch foul shots to cut the Dons’ lead to 1 point, but unfortunately for the Bears, Shabazz hit a clutch 3-pointer to give the Dons a 4 point lead. With 34.2 to go, Cal had the ball after a missed 3-point attempt from Bouyea. Kelly went 1-2 at the line in his most recent trip to the foul line, making it a 70-67 lead for the Dons.
“We don’t win today without the performance of Andre Kelly,” Fox stressed. “He probably didn’t enjoy the last couple of days because I was really hard on him and he knew he could play better. It was nice to see him come back and play as well as he did today…I think the one thing, with all of our big guys, the loss of the summer, and most of the fall, their conditioning is not where it needs to be. So they’re trying to play their way into conditioning and Andre is one of those big body guys. I thought he did more than score tonight. When he checks all those boxes as a rebounder, as a screener, as a scorer, he’s a really good player.”
In the next possession, Cal would feed it inside to Kelly, who scored, making it a 70-69 game. With 8.8 seconds to go, Shabazz went to the foul line for a 1 and 1. He was 5-5 at the line going into that foul shot, but wasn’t able to go 6-6. Ryan Betley rebounded the ball for Cal and got the ball into the hands of Makale Foreman who drained the game winning 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Bears a 72-70 win. It was Foreman’s only bucket of the game, but boy was it a big one. The Bears also never led until that final shot dropped. Truly a reminder that the game is never over until the clock reads 0.0.
“I think it’s a huge shot,” Fox said. “He hadn’t shot it well today, I told him to set his feet. He’s a great shooter…When it mattered, he didn’t have any time to think about it, he went back to his natural instincts. Hopefully that shot will give him more confidence going forward.”
After struggling to connect on his shot, Foreman found his groove when it mattered most. Adjusting to the Pac-12 level hasn’t been easy for Foreman and hopefully for him, this game winning shot will give him the boost that he needs. Cal desperately needs both him and Betley to play up to their max potential. If they do, Cal has a chance to surprise some people. If they don’t, then Cal will be hard pressed to beat anyone decent.
“It’s just having that confidence in your shot and not being down on yourself,” Foreman said. “I think I was due for one. Just having that confidence in me. I was very confident in the shot. Honestly, I thought Matt was going all the way, nobody was near me, D got into me and the rest is history…It’s giving me a lot of confidence. Great confidence booster for me and I really feel it’s going to be good for me.”
Talking bigger picture, today’s win was much-needed for this Cal team after getting soundly beaten by Pepperdine on Wednesday. San Francisco came in red hot and has notched some impressive wins this year, most notably over #4 Virginia. To beat them in any fashion speaks well of this Cal team and their resiliency. They took much better care of the ball (7 turnovers), moved the ball better (17 assists), and overall played a much cleaner game. At the same time, this game also serves as a reminder of what Cal needs to improve on. San Francisco shot 10-23 (43.5%) from 3-point range, better than their season average and got far too many easy baskets in the transition. Cal’s defense still has a ways to go if they are to have the type of impact that they want to have in league play.
Up next for Cal (tentatively) is a road game at Boston College on Tuesday, December 22 at 9:00 AM PST. Mark Fox said post-game it’s unclear if that game will happen due to COVID-19. Fox also added that they are hoping to get another game scheduled during that trip, but that too is up-in-the-air. We should know in the coming days whether that road trip will happen for the Bears or not. If not, it is possible that Cal schedules something else closer to home. One of those wait and see moments that comes with these uncertain times.
