On Saturday, Cal men’s basketball pulled off a shocking win over the Colorado Buffaloes in Berkeley by a final score of 71-62. Cal junior guard Matt Bradley finished with a career-high 29 points and 8 rebounds while Cal freshman guard Jalen Celestine finished with a career-high 13 points of his own. Colorado senior point guard McKinley Wright IV finished with 13 points and 3 assists. Cal improves to 8-15 overall and 3-13 in the Pac-12 while Colorado falls to 16-6 overall and 10-5 in the Pac-12. Cal also improves to 14-2 all-time against Colorado in Berkeley.

“We played as well as we’ve played all year,” Cal head coach Mark Fox said after the game. “We had to play a really complete game to beat a really good Colorado team. We had to play the full 40 minutes and I thought our team has been playing well during stretches. We just haven’t sustained it for long enough stretches and tonight we were able to do that.”

Cal got off to a solid start in this game leading 14-13 with 13:31 to go in the first half. Celestine, who for the second straight game was inserted into the starting lineup, already had 6 points for the Bears on 2-2 shooting from 3-point range. Eli Parquet had 5 points for the Buffs. It was a good offensive start for both teams.

Cal was up 18-15 with 10:38 to go in the half. Celestine was now up to 9 points on 3-3 shooting from deep. The Buffs needed to find a way to slow him down. Cal was shooting 7-12 (58.3%) from the field while Colorado was shooting 5-11 (45.5%). Cal continued to lead 22-21 with 7:04 to go in the half. Cal had slowed down a bit on offense, making 2 of their last 12 field goals, but still had the lead. Cal’s 3-6 shooting from deep had them in front.

“Well I think Jalen has continued to improve,” Fox said of Celestine. “I think he’s more confident in all the things we’re asking him to do. We felt like in the game today we could use him defensively against McKinley Wright. Defensively I thought he was really good. Obviously he made a couple of shots early in the game and he continues to improve.”

The game was tied 24-24 with 3:58 to go in the half. Cal was hanging tough, doing a nice job of making Colorado earn their buckets. Celestine (9 points) was still the top scorer of the game. Colorado would then go up 31-27 with 2:21 to go in the half after a pair of free throws made from Evan Battey. These were crucial minutes for Cal, who had struggled to finish the first half strong all season.

Rather than folding like a cheap tent, Cal rose to the occasion and found themselves up 32-31 with 1:29 to go in the half after a pair of free throws from Celestine and a triple from Bradley. Both guys were up to 11 points. At the half, Cal led 36-33. It helped that Wright IV was sitting with 2 fouls at the end of the first half, but you still had to give the Bears credit. Bradley (15 points) and Celestine (11 points) were leading the way for the Bears while Jeriah Horne was leading the Buffs with his 8 points.

Cal continued to play hard as they led 48-42 with 14:09 to go. Ryan Betley was up to 6 points for the Bears after a pair of triples. It was huge for Cal to get him rolling. Colorado needed Wright IV to get going as he had just 4 points and 3 assists. A major reason for Wright’s quiet play up until this point was the job that Celestine was doing on him defensively. Celestine knew he would be tasked with defending him all night and for the most part, he did a really sound job.

“It’s always gonna be tough going against him,” Celestine said. “He’s one of the best point guards in the conference. One of the best point guards in the country. My coaches give me confidence and I just tried to do the best I could…Just try to not get a foul. Keep my hands off him and use my length. And if I needed to, let the bigs help me, which they did on numerous occasions.”

The game continued to go Cal’s way as they led 50-44 with 12:16 to go. Cal continued to fight and stay in front as Colorado was frustrated by their ability to pull ahead.

With 11:24 to go, Cal led 50-46 after Tristan da Silva got a pretty turnaround jumper to fall to beat the shot clock. There was a feeling that maybe that would get the Buffs going. With 7:56 to go, Cal was now up 52-49. Both teams were in a bit of an offensive funk. Cal had made 1 of their last 8 field goals and had zero field goals in the last 6:22. Colorado had 0 points in the last 2:49.

With 3:34 to go, Cal was now up 60-53. Bradley was up to 20 points and 6 rebounds for the Bears on 8-15 shooting from the field. It was just a matter of finishing strong.

With 1:02 to go, Cal was up 62-58. Wright was heading to the foul line where he would make both foul shots. It was now a 62-60 lead for the Bears. In the next possession, Bradley would make a huge 3-pointer to make it a 65-60 game with just 40.3 to go. That appeared to be the dagger as Colorado was really in trouble now.

In the end, Colorado would fail to win as Cal walked out with a rather comfortable and shocking 71-62 victory. It was truly a stunning win for the Bears. You have to give them credit for putting together a sound game plan and executing for the full 40 minutes.

“Well we’re just growing up,” Fox said. “That’s just part of the process. You have to learn how to play well. Then learn how to play well in the face of adversity. I don’t think we played the full 40 minutes tonight but we played a lot more quality minutes than we’ve had to date this year and that’s what it takes to beat a good team.”

The emergence of Celestine is very important for this Cal team. This was the second straight game he started and he definitely earned his stripes in this one. He did a nice job of knocking down open threes and also playing really good defense on one of the best point guards in the country.

“We figured out because we go through our plays every practice,” Celestine explained of how he found out he’d be starting. “We have a gold team and a blue team. And I was on the blue team going into the Utah game so I had an idea and then before the game my name was on the board and the same thing happened against Colorado.”

As for the Buffs, this is a painful loss. They’re currently projected to make the NCAA tournament, but this will definitely count as a “bad loss” on their tournament resume. As well as Cal played, there were things Colorado could have done better. Colorado head coach Tad Boyle is gonna be frustrated when he watches the tape from this game.

Up next for Cal is a road game at Washington State on Thursday. That game will tipoff at 7:30 PM PST on Pac-12 Networks.