On Thursday, Cal men’s basketball fell to the Utah Runnin’ Utes in Berkeley by a final score of 76-75. Utah junior forward Timmy Allen led the way for the Utes with 18 points and 4 rebounds while freshman guard Ian Martinez finished with 16 points and 5 rebounds. Cal junior guard Matt Bradley was the top performer for the Golden Bears with 20 points and 5 rebounds while senior forward Grant Anticevich (18 points & 8 rebounds) and junior forward Andre Kelly (17 points & 6 rebounds) were close to getting double-doubles. Utah improves to 9-7 overall and 6-6 in the Pac-12 while Cal falls to 7-15 overall and 2-13 in the Pac-12.
“I really am disappointed for our team,” Cal head coach Mark Fox said after the game. “I thought we played really hard in the second half. Gotta give Utah credit for doing the same and we didn’t defend in the half like we wanted to, but in the second half I was pleased with how we played…We got worn out at the free throw line. That’s a hard place to defend…At the end, just couldn’t close it.”
Cal got off to a solid start in this game, leading 12-10 with 14:34 to go in the first half. Andre Kelly had 4 points early for the Bears while Branden Carlson had 4 points for the Utes. Cal was shooting 5-8 from the field while Utah was shooting 4-7.
Utah would soon inch ahead to lead 17-16 with 11:34 to go in the half. Allen was starting to get rolling for the Utes with 7 points. He converted a wild 3-point play where a botched dunk attempt still found its way through the cup. Cal’s slow-footed center Lars Thiemann once again rotated late and didn’t foul Allen hard enough. Kelly was doing his part for the Bears with 6 points. The game was still tight.
With 7:50 to go in the half, Utah led 23-21. Allen (10 points) and Carlson (7 points) were pacing the Utes while Bradley (7 points) and Kelly (6 points) were pacing the Bears. Carlson wasn’t afraid to let it fly from deep, knocking down his first triple of the night.
With 3:12 to go in the half, Utah was up 33-31. It was crucial moments for the Bears. Timmy Allen (12 points) and Alfonso Plummer (9 points) were pacing Utah; Grant Anticevich (8 points) and Makale Foreman (5 points) were starting to heat up for Cal.
“I thought Makale looked like Makale again,” Fox said of Foreman. “He’s had a back injury…He has not been healthy and its affected his play and affected his minutes. He’s looked more like himself the past couple of days and I thought he looked more like himself today also.”
In the next minute or so, the wheels started to come for Cal, similar to what happened the other night in Palo Alto. Utah led 38-31 with 2:33 to go in the half as they were on an 8-0 run. Utah would expand their lead a bit more to lead 42-32 at halftime, unable to get one more bucket before the buzzer sounded after calling for time. The last play of the half was sloppy for the Utes, but they had to feel good knowing they were up by 10 points at the half.
To Cal’s credit, they came out guns blazing to start the second half, opening things up on a 7-0 run. With 15:40 to go, Utah was up 48-43, trying to fend off Cal. The game continued to remain tight as Utah led 53-50 with 11:18 to go. Cal had the game tied up before Riley Battin knocked down a triple for the Utes. We had a ball game in Berkeley.
The game would soon be all knotted up at 57 apiece with 7:25 to go. Bradley was up to 14 points for Cal while Allen was up to 16 points for Utah. This would had the looks of a game that was going to go down to the wire. Cal was outscoring Utah 25-15 in the second half as Utah was shooting an icy 5-15 from the field coming out of the locker room.
Utah would soon take a 61-57 lead with 6:14 to go. Carlson and Martinez made two huge buckets for Utah to give them that cushion. Soon, Utah would find themselves up by just two points (66-64) with 3:53 to go. It was a back and forth affair. Martinez got a bucket inside for Utah while Foreman struck back for Cal with a jumper. It was that kind of night.
Utah then appeared to finally have the lead they were looking for up 72-66 with 2:02 to go. Cal now needed some help. Cal didn’t get the help they needed in the next 90 seconds. Mikael Jantunen, whose 6-6 shooting from the foul line in hindsight was crucial, stripped Matt Bradley with 1:18 to go in a similar way to what Michael Jordan did to Karl Malone in the 1998 NBA Finals. Allen would then get fouled and go 1-2 at the foul line making it a 75-68 lead for Utah with 37.6 to go following an offensive foul on Bradley that was reversed upon official review.
Looking like they were deader than disco, Cal attempted to rise from the grave once more and nearly did:
Bradley would go to the foul line and make both free throws to make it a 75-70 lead for Utah. Allen then went to the foul line and went 1-2 making it a 76-70 lead for Utah. Kelly then got a second chance layup to make it a 76-72 game. Allen would then get fouled and miss both free throws. Bradley then made Utah pay with a nice layup inside to make it a 76-74 game with 6 seconds left.
Rather than icing the game at the foul line, Allen turned the ball over and gave Bradley a last second opportunity to win the game at the buzzer. Bradley’s 3-point attempt rattled in and out and was rebounded by Kelly who was then fouled by Allen with 0.7 seconds to go. Kelly had two foul shots in front of him and if he made both the game would have been tied 76-76 with overtime looking almost certain barring a miraculous heave from the Utes. Kelly missed the first free throw, made the second and that was ball game. 76-75 Utah escaped with a win after nearly booting it.
“They went to the line trip after trip after trip and that’s a place that you can’t defend,” Fox said. “I thought that was a huge factor in the game…We want Matt Bradley taking that shot every time…It’s really the mistakes in the first 39 minutes that we have to focus on…We did play well. I thought we competed hard and we finished plays at a pretty good rate. Had multiple guys in double figures. We just got outscored at the line and we gotta get more stops throughout the first half.”
“They’re a really good team,” Anticevich added. “It’s gone down to the wire a lot of the games we’ve played them. We knew we played well in that second half and were able to come out into the win. We knew they’d come in fired up and do their best to get the win…I just think they came in with a mindset to go hard because we beat them at home and that makes for a good game.”
For Cal, this loss really stings. They came in having lost six straight games and were hoping to end their skid. Instead, they now have lost seven straight games after Utah nearly giftwrapped the game to them in a bow. The win was right there at their fingertips and they came up one point short.
“Obviously it’s frustrating to lose especially when it’s a close game,” Anticevich said. “A couple less mistakes and a few things go our way and that’s our game…We have a feeling that our best basketball's ahead of us. We did a lot of good things well. We played hard. Keep playing harder and we’ll end up with the win.”
Of course, Cal can’t exactly feel like they were robbed in this game. They once again collapsed at the end of the first half, resulting in a 10 point deficit at the half. When you cave like that and dig yourself into such a big hole, it’s tough to come all the way back to win. It’s easy to come close, they came close at Stanford on Sunday as well, but it’s not easy to come all the way back and win. They found that out once again today.
“You have to adjust to the whistle in the game,” Fox said. “In the first half, there weren’t as many fouls called. In the second half there were more. The hard part about when teams are in the double bonus is a foul yields two free throw attempts…So you’ve gotta learn to play without fouling and I thought we did that a lot. Maybe more so than anyone else thinks, but at the end of the day, you gotta play through whatever happens on the floor.”
As for Utah, they just have to be happy that they walked out with a win. They did a nice job of building that 10 point lead at the half and they found a way to hang out. They’ve also now won four of their last five games. So they are starting to build some momentum. This is a game Utah could have easily let slip away and to their credit, they found a way to pull out the victory. Without their starting point guard Rylan Jones, no less.
The x-factor in the game was Branden Carlson: 13 points and 3 blocks. His interior defense and his timely shot making made the difference. Cal simply didn’t have answer for him inside.
That isn’t to say that Mark Fox didn’t try to mix things up at all. He did make the decision to start freshman guard Jalen Celestine to put more pressure on Timmy Allen. Even though his team didn’t win, Fox is glad he made the move that he did and was pleased with the effort Celestine gave him in this game.
“We felt like Tim Allen, who still had a great night, we just feel like he needed a bigger body on him,” Fox said of his decision to start Celestine. “I didn’t want to risk Matt being in foul trouble. We went with Jalen who played well in the first game and we gave him a chance. And I thought he did ok.”
Up next for Cal is a home game against Colorado on Saturday. That game will tipoff at 7:00 PM PST on ESPN2 or ESPNU as well as KGO 810 AM.
