On Wednesday, Cal men’s basketball fell to the Pepperdine Waves on the road in Malibu, California by a final score of 74-62. Known for its beautiful weather and laid back vibe, this game was anything but that for the Golden Bears who practically drowned in a tsunami of twelve 3-point shots. Pepperdine junior forward Kessler Edwards led the way for the Waves with 26 points and 8 rebounds on 9-13 shooting from the field and 4-6 shooting from beyond the arc. Matt Bradley eclipsed the 1000 career-point mark as a Golden Bear with 27 points and 5 rebounds. Pepperdine improves to 3-2 overall while Cal falls to 2-4 (0-2).
“I felt like comparison to last year’s game, our defense was much more effective a year ago,” Cal head coach Mark Fox lamented after the game. “We have not established our defensive ability to get stops yet and obviously they made the 3-point line with a stretch 5 a real challenge for tonight. They made 10 threes in the first half. Again we’re playing uphill. We have to build a defense that can give us a chance to win away from home.”
Touching more on what needs to change defensively, Fox said it’s all about getting reps and improving communication. Something his predecessor Wyking Jones also stressed when his teams got torched from beyond the arc.
“Well tonight’s challenge was a stretch-5 man,” Fox explained. “We struggled and so we have to be able to. What was disappointing tonight was we went to zone and tried to take away their rhythm and it wasn’t effective. We just need practice time and experience and develop the ability to take away threes and chase people off the line.”
Early on, Pepperdine led 11-3 with 15:53 to go in the half. Kessler Edwards was up to 5 points on 2-2 shooting from the field, doing his part to give the Waves the early lead. Matt Bradley was the lone Cal player on the board with 3 points. Pepperdine was shooting 4-7 from the field and 3-6 from deep. Cal needed to get a hand up on defense.
One bright spot for Cal early on was the return of freshman forward Monty Bowser, who checked into the game with under 14:00 to go in the half. With 13:34 to go in the half, Pepperdine led 13-10 as Cal was starting to wake up. Pepperdine stretch big Jan Zidek started to get going a bit, knocking down a pair of 3-pointers, one of which was from dead center. As a result, Pepperdine led 19-11 with 11:53 to go in the half, shooting 5-10 from 3-point range. Cal’s perimeter defense continued to be an issue as Bradley was up to 7 points.
Cal would trail 29-19 with 7:51 to go as Zidek was up to 9 points on 3-4 shooting from deep. One bright spot for the Bears was senior forward Grant Anticevich, who was up to 12 points on 5-7 shooting from the field. However, perimeter defense continued to dominate the story for Cal as Pepperdine was shooting 7-13 from deep.
The Waves’ 3-point tsunami continued after Andre Ball, cousin of the Ball brothers, made his first 3-pointer of the season. 34-24 Pepperdine led with 3:26 to go in the half. Cal had 0 field goals in the last 5:43 as Bradley forced up a missed triple. At the half, Pepperdine would lead 44-30. Edwards (13 points) and Zidek (12 points) led the charge for the Waves. Anticevich (14 points) and Bradley (11 points) led the Bears. A major issue for Cal was the lack of production from grad transfer guards Ryan Betley (2 points) and Makale Foreman (0 points). Without those guys in any sort of groove, Cal was hard pressed for buckets.
With 19:12 to go in the game, Pepperdine head coach Lorenzo Romar was fuming about a triple that Anticevich made, shaving his team’s lead down to 13 points (46-33). Cal head coach Mark Fox in turn was irate after Bradley picked up his third foul on a very ticky tack call.
With 15:15 to go, Pepperdine maintained a 13 point lead, up 48-35. Edwards was leading the Waves with 17 points and 5 rebounds while Anticevich also had 17 points for the Bears. Bradley was up to 11 points while the rest of the Cal players were combining for a paltry 7 points.
The game started to really slip away from Cal over the next few minutes as Pepperdine led 55-36 with 12:15 to go. Ball was up to 10 points after knocking down a corner 3-pointer. The Waves came into this game shooting 27.2% from 3-point range and were currently shooting 45.8%, almost double what they have been shooting on the season. Cal’s perimeter defense was close to non-existent.
Pepperdine would continue to be in control up 61-47 with 7:58 to go. Bradley was up to 18 points for Cal after surpassing the 1000 career mark after a tricky layup in transition. Cal also was doing a nice job of getting to the foul line, where they were shooting 13-18. The issue was they were allowing Pepperdine to heat up on offense while also doing themselves no favors with their 37.5% shooting from the field.
Cal then would make things a bit interesting, trailing 68-58 with 3:31 to go. Bradley (25 points) and Anticevich (21 points) were doing all they could to keep Cal afloat. Others needed to step up as well. Rather than trying to muck up the game a bit and make Pepperdine earn the win at the foul line, Mark Fox didn’t instruct the Bears to foul, allowing Pepperdine to lead 74-62 with 20.1 to go. Cal could have cut the game to single digits, but they instead waived the white flag earlier than expected.
“No, I think with the disruption that we had, we haven’t had a lot of continuity and we are a little disjointed really on both ends,” Fox said. “It was nice to see Matt and Grant be as effective as they were. Makale and Ryan didn’t shoot as well and they have been. To win on the road we’re going to need several guys to contribute.”
With 20.1 to go, Fox called for time. An odd move considering his apathy and willingness to allow the Waves to chew up so much clock. That timeout didn’t do the Bears any good as Pepperdine walked out with a 74-62 win. Bradley (27 points) and Anticevich (21 points) had strong nights, but no one else from Cal did anything of importance on offense. Betley and Foreman, the two grad transfer guards each scored 4 points, not doing nearly enough to help their team win.
“Grant he went from not playing at all two years ago to playing too much last year,” Fox said of Anticevich. “He didn’t have that year where you play the medium step to play half those minutes. I don’t know if he ever relaxed last year and now he is able to relax… He can go a couple minutes without a shot and still maintain his poise. I think he’s just matured…We haven’t had a chance to practice small ball…We’re going to need more than two guys to chip in.”
All in all, this loss really stings for Cal. They came in as 4.5 point underdogs according to the guys at Vegas and 6.5 point underdogs according to my calculations. Losing a hard fought, close game at Pepperdine wouldn’t have been bad. But that’s not what happened. Cal instead got soundly beaten and showed no ability to make serious adjustments in the second half. Even more depressingly, when there appeared to possibly be a bit of sunshine, Cal closed the door on that, deciding that they had enough. Maybe that sign for Duke’s Malibu Beach Restaurant made Fox hungry.
Up next for Cal is a home game on Sunday against a very talented San Francisco Dons squad. That game will tipoff at 12:00 PM PST in the first of two games at Haas Pavilion. Cal women’s basketball will welcome #1 Stanford to Haas later that night at 7:00 PM PST.
