On Thanksgiving Day, Cal men’s basketball defeated NAIA opponent Northwest (WA) by a final score of 86-61 at Gill Coliseum in Corvallis, Oregon. Cal grad transfer shooting guard Ryan Betley led the way for the Golden Bears with 14 points and 9 rebounds while Dejwan Walker was the top performer for the Eagles with 12 points.
“I think that the one thing that we have to understand is when you don’t play five-on-five for eight months that there’s going to be significant rust,” Cal head coach Mark Fox said after the game. “To just knock off more and more rust. Every team is going to have it. I think there’s going to be a lot of sloppy play. I think we’re just trying to be consistent. There’s a lot of things that we didn’t do for eight months.”
Cal got off to an early 10-5 lead with 15:41 to go in the half. It was a balanced attack from the Bears as grad transfer guard Makale Foreman and junior guard Matt Bradley each had 3 points while sophomore forwards Kuany Kuany and
D.J. Thorpe each had 2 points. Thorpe and Kuany were both injected into the starting lineup and that seemed to make a positive impact on the Bears early on.
“Ultimately as we change the trajectory of this program we have to also change the competitive maturity and the competitive endurance within the team and that’s something that’s learned,” Fox said. “I thought we started the game with a lot greater effort tonight and defensive intensity. It’ll take us a while to find our rotation.”
Shortly thereafter, freshman wing Monty Bowser joined the party with a fierce baseline slam to help give Cal a 15-7 lead with 11:51 to go in the half. Cal was shooting a solid 6-11 (54.5%) from the field while Northwest was shooting a meager 3-11 (27.3%).
With 7:53 to go in the half, Cal’s lead had ballooned 24-7 as they were currently on an 11-0 run over the last 5:57 and a 14-2 run over the last 7:13. Junior forward Andre Kelly had 7 points for the Bears and was off to a solid start of his own. Also notable was the fact that freshman guard Jalen Celestine checked in. Celestine didn’t play at all against Oregon State the night before, but Fox was able to find minutes for him in this game, giving him a chance to shake off some rust and test out his leg, which he has been rehabbing the last several months due to a stress fracture.
“Jalen is a talented young guy,” Fox said. “He’s healthy, but he has to get back in and get his leg back in playing condition and body back in playing condition. He’s making good progress and it was great to see him out there tonight and I think he’ll only get better and better.”
With 2:59 to go until halftime, Cal had a 35-17 lead as Betley was up to 8 points after a pretty reverse layup. Known more for his perimeter shooting, Betley showed that he can finish around the rim with some English. At the half, Cal led 41-21. Andre Kelly was the top scorer for the Bears with 9 points while Ryan Betley and Joel Brown each had 8 points. Brown came off the bench in this game and seemed to respond to the message that was sent by his relegation.
Cal opened up the second half strong, leading 55-29 with 15:12 to go. Betley was up to 11 points and 8 rebounds on 4-6 shooting from the field and 3-5 shooting from 3-point range. He was out there hustling and making plays. Not long after, Foreman converted a 3-point play after a pretty layup through contact.
“Ryan and Makale can obviously shoot it,” Fox said. “That’s a welcomed addition.”
Cal would then extend their lead to 30 points, leading 62-32 with 11:49 to go. Thorpe was up to 6 points and 5 rebounds, doing a solid job of justifying his start. With 8:52 to go, Cal was now up 70-38. Kelly was up to 11 points while Lars Thiemann was up to 6 points after a quiet start.
Things continued to go Cal’s way as they led 81-44 with 5:36 to go after a 3-point play from Betley. It was at this point that Betley and Bradley punched out for the night. Betley left the game with a game-high 14 points while Bradley had 11 points, a relatively quiet night after the way he performed against Oregon State on Wednesday.
In the end, Cal walked out with a comfortable 86-61 win. It went about as we would expect. Cal looked like a Division I program and Northwest looked like an NAIA school. From that standpoint, there isn’t much to take away from this game.
That said, I do have a couple of thoughts on this game that I would like to share before closing this off:
First, D.J. Thorpe had a solid outing and showed why he is deserving of more minutes. Whenever he gets minutes, he seems to make the most of his opportunities. I would expect we’ll see more of him as the season goes on.
Secondly, seeing Jalen Celestine play was nice for this Cal team. There had been a lot of speculation about how healthy he was and the fact that he got a bit of a run in tells us that he’s healthy. It’s just a matter of getting back into game shape before he can get more minutes.
Finally, I think it’s going to take a while before we see any sort of consistent lineup/rotation for this Cal team. There are a lot of new pieces added to the mix and given the lack of practice time that they’ve had together, it’s going to take a little bit of time for them to gel and for Mark Fox to figure out what lineup/rotation will give him the best chance to succeed night in night out.
Up next for Cal is a home game against Nicholls State on Monday. That game will tipoff at 4:30 PM PST on Pac-12 Networks.
Note: Mark Fox also addressed transfer guard Jarred Hyder’s waiver getting denied:
“I don’t have a full explanation yet on why Jarred’s waiver was denied. Obviously I was extremely disappointed in that ruling because the percentage of people who are getting it is extremely high. We’re gonna keep digging into it and keep investing the reason. There’s no question that we’re disappointed it was denied. Was I confident? I thought based upon the percentage of people that were getting the waivers that he would get it. I guess that I was confident that he would get it I’m surprised that he didn’t get it.”
