Cal MBB gets pulverized at Pauley Pavilion

On Sunday, Cal men’s basketball lost to UCLA at Pauley Pavilion by a final score of 76-56. UCLA senior guard Chris Smith led the way for the Bruins with 21 points and 4 rebounds while Cal grad transfer guard Makale Foreman was the top scorer for the Golden Bears with 14 points and 3 assists. UCLA improves to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in the Pac-12 while Cal falls to 2-3 overall and 0-2 in the Pac-12.

“We just didn’t play well out of the gate,” Cal head coach Mark Fox said after the game. “We gotta be more ready to play. We were a step behind every play. They shot nearly 70 percent in the first half. You have to give them credit for some of that, but obviously our defense was nowhere near where we wanted it to be. Offensively, I didn’t think we played with any authority. I thought we played a step behind in every play.”

UCLA got off to a 10-7 lead with 16:00 to go in the first half. Chris Smith was feeling it early for the Bruins with 6 points on 2-2 shooting from deep. Matt Bradley (4 points) and Grant Anticevich (3 points) were on the board for the Bears. Both teams were off to a hot shooting start: UCLA (4-4 FG); Cal (3-4 FG).

With 11:37 to go in the half, UCLA led 21-11. Dimitrios Klonaras and Lars Thiemann were on the scoreboard early for Cal while Smith was up to 8 points for UCLA, having not yet missed a shot. UCLA was shooting 8-9 from the field and 3-4 from deep. Cal was shooting 5-11 from the field and 1-3 from deep. Cal needed to get a hand up on defense and not allow UCLA to score so easily.

With 9:27 to go in the half, UCLA led 26-11. UCLA was on a 10-0 run over the last 2:55 as Cal had 0 points in the last 3:44. Cal needed to wake from their offensive slumber. UCLA would make it a 12-0 run to lead 28-11 with 7:41 to go in the half. Cal continued to be colder than ice.

“I think that they’re a great defensive team,” Fox said of UCLA. “Their length certainly bothered us and I thought we turned down some shots. Against a great defensive team, to get a shot even if it’s early in the clock, you’ve gotta take advantage of some of those good looks because the great look may not come against a really good defensive team, so I think you gotta give them a lot of credit.”

With 4:26 to go in the half, UCLA would lead 35-16. UCLA was on fire, shooting 14-20 (70.0%) from the field. Cal in turn was shooting an icy 7-18 (38.9%) from the field. Finally, Cal started to show some signs of life as Foreman went on a 6-0 run all by himself with back-to-back threes. UCLA called for time up 37-22 with 1:45 to go in the half.

A 3-pointer from UCLA junior guard David Singleton made it a 40-22 lead for the Bruins at halftime. Singleton was up to 9 points, having a solid opening half. Mark Fox threw the ball in disgust as he walked to the locker room, clearly not pleased with the product his team was putting on the floor. Chris Smith (11 points) was leading the way for the Bruins while Makale Foreman (6 points) was the top scorer for the Bears.

The second half did not get off to the type of start Cal was hoping for as UCLA would lead 51-32 with 15:15 to go. UCLA guard Tyger Campbell connected with Jalen Hill for an alley-oop slam. The Bruins were executing alley-oops like the old Lob City Clippers. Cal simply lacked the athleticism inside to stop it.

With 11:46 to go, UCLA would lead 56-40. Bradley (12 points) and Foreman (9 points) were battling hard for the Bears, but needed some help. Defensively, it was still too easy for UCLA, who was shooting 23-39 (59.0%) from the field.

UCLA held a 64-50 lead with 7:22 to go. Smith was up to 17 points for UCLA after a slam dunk while Ryan Betley was up to 10 points for Cal after a triple. Cal was winning the second half 28-24. But sadly, their first half deficit likely was going to be too much to overcome. Tough to win in the Pac-12 if you play like trash for half of the game.

With 3:42 to go, UCLA continued to have a strong lead up 69-54. Foreman was up to 14 points for Cal after a transition layup in which he appeared to injure his wrist. Fortunately for Cal, he soon would check back into the game as his wrist appeared to be ok following a look from the trainer. Cal defended better and shot the ball better in the second half. The problem as said earlier was the hole they dug themselves into in the first half.

In the end, UCLA walked out with a decisive 76-56 victory. Cal made a bit of a push at the end, but they ran out of gas. The bizarre twist to this game was Matt Bradley mysteriously not playing from the 11:46 mark in the second half on. Cal got within 12 points with plenty of time left, but Mark Fox made the decision that benching his star player was the right path to go down.

“We started crawling back in it and he wasn’t having one of his better nights,” Fox said of Bradley. “He’s been a good player and we’ll see good moments from him again I’m sure, but just felt like those other guys were battling, until we really got back in it, I thought I wanted to give those kids a chance.”

One other interesting twist to the game was Makale Foreman not being able to start due to a COVID-19 testing snag. He wasn’t able to join the team on the regular flight, but was able to still get to the arena in time to play. This snag resulted in him coming off the bench to start the game. One other player had the same thing happen, though we weren’t told post-game what player that was.

“Obviously we had a snag in the testing process, we had a couple players not allowed to travel with us yesterday, so they didn’t practice yesterday or attend shootaround today,” Fox said. “They joined us for the game tonight. Just a hiccup in the testing process. Everybody I think is ok and I haven’t heard a report from my trainer, but I think he’ll be fine from his fall tonight.”

Up next for Cal is a road game at Pepperdine on Wednesday, December 9. That game will tipoff at 6:00 PM PST on CBS Sports Network.