Cal MBB fumbles away home loss to Oregon State
On Thursday, Cal men’s basketball suffered a disappointing 59-57 loss to Oregon State at home in Berkeley. Oregon State senior center and 2019 two-star recruit Roman Silva, who came in averaging 4.8 points per game, carved the Bears up inside with a career-high 15 points. Cal junior guard Matt Bradley walked out with 20 points on 7-11 shooting from the field while Cal junior Andre Kelly finished with 15 points on 5-7 shooting from the field.
Oregon State improves to 12-11 overall, 8-9 in the Pac-12, and 3-0 against Cal this season. This is also Oregon State’s first win in Berkeley since 2009. Cal falls to 8-18 overall and 3-16 in Pac-12 play, the worst record Cal has had in league play since Wyking Jones’ first season as head coach.
“Really a disappointing loss,” Cal head coach Mark Fox said after the game. “I was really disappointed in a couple things, but I thought in the first half I thought we played pretty complete…We played well defensively. We shared the ball offensively…We got off to a bad start in the second half…It’s the defensive possessions in the second half that cost us the game. We did not defend well enough in the second half to win.”
Cal got off to a really good start in this game, leading 10-2 with 15:49 to go in the first half. Andre Kelly was off to a really nice start for Cal, scoring 5 points early as the Bears were shooting 4-4 from the field. With 11:11 to go in the half, the good vibes continued to roll for Cal as they led 22-11. Kelly was on fire with 11 points, getting whatever he wanted inside. Cal couldn’t ask for a better start.
Another good sign for Cal was the return of Joel Brown, who checked back in pretty early. He came into the game questionable with a lower leg injury. Having him back gave the backcourt a much needed boost.
“We’re not the healthiest group, we’re not the freshest group,” Fox said. “But that’s part of the game. You have to be able to play through that.”
With 6:23 to go in the half, Cal led 26-16. Grant Anticevich was starting to heat up for the Bears with 7 points. Cal was shooting a blistering 10-14 (71.4%) from the field while Oregon State was shooting a sub-par 7-16 (43.8%). The strong start continued for the Bears as the Beavers were unable to dam up their offense.
Similar to the end of other first halves we’ve seen throughout the season, Cal started to fall apart like the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz as Oregon State went on an 8-0 run to make it a 26-24 lead for Cal with 3:43 to go. It was a committee effort for the Beavers as Ethan Thompson led the charge with 6 points.
To Cal’s credit, they stopped the bleeding and found a way to take a five-point 33-28 lead into halftime. Both teams ended the half cold. No field goals for Cal in the last 2:30 and no field goals for Oregon State in the last 3:44. Kelly led the Bears with 11 points on 4-4 shooting from the field and 3-4 shooting from the foul line. Ethan Thompson and Jarod Lucas each had 6 points for the Beavers.
“We felt like we could play through Andre a little bit in the first half and he was able to be effective and obviously their size is an advantage for them offensively and with the right angles, Andre was able to score,” Fox said. “He didn’t get nearly as good of looks after the first half.”
Cal would revert to their Scarecrow ways again in the second half as Oregon State opened up the second half on an 8-0 run. Ethan Thompson was up to 8 points for the Beavers after a bucket inside. 36-33 Oregon State led with 17:08 to go after Mark Fox and Cal called for time.
“We lost it at the start of the half,” Fox said. “We started the second half so poorly. And I’m not sure we ever got a full rhythm back. We had a couple spurts where we got some baskets. And again, we would have liked to have been better offensively, but if we played defense up to the level that you need to play to compete in this conference, we win. We have to become more balanced offensively. But again it comes back to consistency on the other end until you improve in those areas.”
With 15:35 to go, the game was tied 37-37 after four quick points from Bradley. Giving him the ball was definitely a good idea as he went right to work, getting Cal right back in the game. Over the next couple of minutes, Oregon State’s lead would grow as Warith Alatishe through down a vicious dunk reminiscent of Shawn Kemp with the way he hung on the rim. He was up to 7 points as Oregon State now led 43-37 with 11:59 to go.
With 7:10 to go, Oregon State led 51-46. Roman Silva was doing work inside for the Beavers with 13 points on 5-6 shooting from the field. It was a throwback inside game as neither team was able to get things going from the perimeter. Oregon State was 0-8 from 3-point land while Cal was 1-13. Both ghastly shooting numbers from deep.
The Beavers continued to build up their lead as they led 55-48 with 4:34 to go. The two-star recruit Silva was looking like Hakeem Olajuwon inside as he was up to 15 points. Things were going the Beavers’ way.
“I think one of the things we wanted to do tonight was take away the 3-point line and we did that,” Fox said. “I would say, their size was a major factor and certainly in the second half it was really obvious that they took advantage of that matchup.”
“He’s just big,” Kelly said of Silva. “That was basically it. He’s a big body and he’s hard to move. So, that’s really all I have, I think.”
Rather than giving up, Cal continued to fight as Makale Foreman got a much needed triple, though it was somewhat negated by an offensive foul from Joel Brown. Still, with 3:11 to go, it was a ball game as Oregon State led 57-53 with possession.
The game remained 57-53 after Foreman’s 3-point attempt got tipped. This time, there was 2:34 left on the clock. Time was not a friend of Cal at this point.
Over the next couple of minutes, Cal had a couple of possessions in which they could have scored and taken the last second lead, but they were unable to. Most painfully, it ended with Matt Bradley unable to covert the game winning/tying shot right as the clock expired. Instead, he committed a turnover, fumbling away the game for Cal in the end.
It was a painful way for Bradley and Cal to end the game as they came so close to winning. You could see it on the face of Bradley how gutted he was to come so close and still no cigar. This loss sadly captures the type of season Cal has had. Lots of missed opportunities. They’ve had many games where they’ve battled tough and come up just a bit short in the end. Scoring droughts at the end of halves have often made the difference as it did tonight.
“A lot of it was my fault, honestly,” Kelly said rather candidly. “I didn’t play well defensively. Silva scored a lot. That was on me…We just need to focus on playing complete basketball. I think if we can finish games strong and start the halves strong, we’ll be good.”
As for Oregon State, this was a much needed win for them. They came in having lost four of their last five games and really couldn’t afford a loss to a Cal team that is the worst in the league. They had to win this game and to their credit, they found a way to get it done.
Oregon State head coach Wayne Tinkle deserves a fair amount of credit for getting his team across the finish line. Whatever he said at halftime clearly fired up his team and got them motivated to win. In the post-game show on Pac-12 Networks, Roman Silva credited his coach for giving them the words of encouragement that they needed.
“Aw man, we just started playing together in the second half,” Silva said. “He really got into us in there at halftime and kinda lit a fire under us and we came out and responded…Man, he just told me to keep having confidence in myself. I started off on a slow start and I really was frustrated out there and he told me they were going to come back to me, they believed in me, and that was all the motivation I needed. They believed in me and my teammates believed in me.”
Up next for Cal is another home game on Saturday against Oregon. That game will tipoff at 1:00 PM PST on Pac-12 Networks and KGO 810 AM.