On Thursday, Cal men’s basketball suffered a hideous loss to Washington State by a final score of 82-51. Despite being without their best player Isaac Bonton, the Cougars had no problem going in circles around a Cal team that looked both dispirited and confused by what was going on. Sophomore guard Noah Williams led the way for the Cougars with a career-high 32 points, 9 rebounds, and 7 assists while junior guard Matt Bradley finished with 16 points after coming off the bench due to feeling a bit under the weather. Washington State improves to 13-10 overall and 6-10 in the Pac-12 while Cal falls to 8-16 overall and 3-14 in the Pac-12.
“I was really disappointed in the effort we gave today,” Cal head coach Mark Fox sighed after the game. “ We just let them have really good looks from three…We didn’t have the resiliency that we needed to win on the road. Really disappointed in our play tonight…When we missed some shots, we let it impact our defense. I would say that’s part of that equation.”
Early on, this game was tight as Cal and Washington State were tied 7-7 with 15:54 to go in the first half. Jalen Celestine had a nice hoop plus the harm to give Cal a boost. Cal was shooting 3-4 from the field while Wazzu was shooting 3-6.
From then on, things slowly started to take a dark turn for Cal. With 11:58 to go in the half, Washington State was up 15-10 as Noah Williams was starting to find his groove with 7 points on 3-5 shooting from the field. Andre Kelly was up to 4 points for Cal on 2-2 shooting from the field. Cal needed to get Matt Bradley going, who was yet to attempt a shot.
Things continued to spiral more out of control as Washington State was up 25-13 with 7:51 to go in the half. Williams was up to 11 points for the Cougars on 4-6 shooting from the field and 2-2 shooting from deep. Cal had to stop him. Kelly was still the highest scorer for Cal with 4 points while Bradley had 0 points.
With 3:41 to go in the half, Washington State was up 35-21 as Williams was now up to 14 points on 5-8 shooting from the field and 3-3 shooting from 3-point range. Bradley was finally on the board for the Bears with 5 points. Cal was in a hole early and needed to figure out how to dig out of it. Williams and Bradley would quickly exchange threes like they were trading Christmas presents. With 2:56 to go in the half, Washington State was now up 38-24.
At the half, Washington State was up 48-26. Williams was up to 24 points, a career-high for the Cougars. Despite having no Isaac Bonton, the Cougars were blowing out the Bears. Bradley was the top scorer for Cal with 8 points. He was playing ok, but was a little off due to his illness. As for the rest of his teammates, they weren’t providing the type of support that they needed to.
The second half didn’t turn around at all for Cal. Things were no longer turning dark. They were dark. With 15:41 to go, Washington State was up 54-31 as Williams was up to 28 points for the Cougars while Bradley had 12 points for the Bears. Cal was failing to slow down Williams and they were paying dearly for it.
Bradley would soon pick up his 4th foul as Washington State led 56-35 with 14:27 to go. Both him and Fox were frustrated by the call, feeling like Bradley wasn’t being given the spacing needed to adequately defend.
Washington State would lead 60-40 with 11:52 to go as Williams now had 30 points. The Cougars were shooting 22-40 (55.0%) from the field and 8-14 (57.1%) from 3-point range. All things continued to go their way.
Rather than easing their foot off the gas pedal, the Cougars continued to go full throttle as DJ Rodman (son of Dennis) and Andrej Jakimovski nailed back-to-back threes. Washington State continued to smoke Cal up 66-40 with 10:33 to go.
Washington State would lead 71-40 with 7:57 to go. The Cougars were on a 13-0 run over the last 4:18. The awful performance from the Bears continued as with 2:13 to go, Washington State led 79-47. In the end Washington State walked out with an 82-51 win.
“I think I’m really disappointed because we didn’t show the competitive maturity that you have to have to play every night,” Fox complained. “As well as we played on Saturday and then to flip the coin and play that poorly tonight…For our kids to be so different the other night. We have to develop the competitive maturity to play every day. I know it’s been hard with the pandemic, but you have to show up to play every single day. We have to find a way to bring the effort every single night.”
Up next for Cal is a road game at Washington on Saturday. That game will tipoff at 7:00 PM PST on ESPNU and KGO 810 AM. Mark Fox better hope his guys put up a better effort. If they don’t it will reflect poorly on him.
