Cal MBB lays an egg at home against Wazzu

On Thursday, Cal men’s basketball fell to Washington State at home by a final score of 71-60. Washington State senior guard Isaac Bonton led the Cougars with 22 points, 5 rebounds, and 6 assists while Cal junior forward Andre Kelly finished 11 points and 5 rebounds. Washington State improves to 9-1 overall and 2-1 in the Pac-12 while Cal falls to 5-7 overall and 0-5 in the Pac-12.

“I think tonight we played hard,” Cal head coach Mark Fox said after the game. “But we didn’t rebound the ball tonight to the level that we need to and we didn’t defend the 3-point line. Just got crushed on the backboards. We have to play more complete against a team that came in with the record that they had.”

Before tipoff, it was announced via team release that Cal junior Matt Bradley (ankle) would be out while Cal senior Grant Anticevich (appendectomy) would be a game time decision. Going into the contest, it was expected that Bradley would miss the game, but there were some rumblings of a possible Anticevich return, making his game-time decision tag all the more interesting.

With 15:39 to go in the first half, Cal led 11-7. Anticevich quickly came off the bench, knocking down a 3-pointer in his first shot back. It was a nice start for the Bears.

“Grant’s had very limited practice time,” Fox said of Anticevich. “He didn’t get officially cleared until before the game. He had some light practice time. Very limited certainly and I think it shows with his conditioning. He played better than he practiced, which was good to see. He’s a lost a significant amount of weight and conditioning.”

Cal would continue to lead 17-13 with 10:58 to go in the half. Kelly was up to 6 points and 1 rebound, getting on a roll inside. As for the Cougars, Bonton was up to 6 points. Cal was on a 6-0 run over the last 1:52. Washington State hadn’t scored in the last 3:41.

With 8:04 to go in the half, Cal led 19-17. Cal grad transfer guard Ryan Betley was up to 5 points on 1-2 shooting from deep and 2-2 shooting from the charity stripe. Cal was really in need of getting him into a groove.

Washington State would retake the lead 22-21 with 3:37 to go in the half. Bonton was starting to heat up with 10 points for the Cougars. Washington State was shooting a decent 9-20 (45.0%) from the field while Cal was shooting an icy 7-21 (33.3%). Cal’s cold shooting would continue as Washington State led 26-21 with 2:22 to go in the half. It was an 8-0 run for the Cougars in the last 2:14 and a 13-2 run over the last 6:28. Cal had made 1 of their last 9 field goals and hadn’t scored in the last 2:42. The Bears were hibernating on offense.

“Well I think that obviously we’ve relied heavily on Matt Bradley and not having Matt, we have to play differently,” Fox said. “We missed him. We didn’t shoot the 3 great and I thought we were a little impatient with our 3-point shooting.”

Cal would shortly come out of their hibernation thanks to five quick points from Betley: A 3-pointer and a layup. Joel Brown also knocked down a pair of free throws. With the game tied 28-28, Cal was hoping to go into halftime tied or ahead. Unfortunately for the Bears, Aljaz Kunc made a 3-pointer to give the Cougars a 31-29 halftime lead.

With 16:34 to go, Washington State led 41-34. Isaac Bonton and Efe Abogidi each had 12 points for the Cougars. Cal sophomore Lars Thiemann had a fierce hammer dunk inside, trying to fire up the Bears.

“It helps a lot,” Kelly said of getting Thiemann rolling. “Lars, he’s really big, he scores a lot in the post, he’s starting to hit his stride more. It’s a good game for Lars and if he can get rolling that would be a great addition for our team.”

Over the next few minutes, Washington State would start to grow their lead. After a crazy bank shot from Bonton, who was up to 16 points, the Cougars led 49-36 with 13:19 to go. It was danger time for the Bears.

“He’s a really good player,” Fox said of Bonton. “He’s a really confident aggressive offensive player. We had a difficult time keeping him out of the lane. He got in there a lot. He’s got the complete package, gets to the line, has great speed, and we didn’t do a good enough job defending him.”

The struggle would continue as Washington State led 51-36 with 11:16 to go. Washington State was shooting 19-37 (51.4%) from the field, finding a nice groove. Cal in contrast was shooting 13-40 (32.5%) from the field, unable to get into a good flow on their end. Cal hadn’t scored in the last 3:39.

“They're a pretty big team, they’re athletic,” Kelly said. “They’re tall and athletic. We need to do a better job boxing out and rebounding. I need to do a better job boxing out and rebounding.”

Fortunately for Cal, Washington State would go into an offensive dry spell of their own. With 7:39 to go, the Cougars’ lead was 10 points (54-44) as they had 0 field goals in the last 2:52. This allowed Cal to hang around and have some life.

Cal failed to capitalize over the next couple of minutes as Washington State led 59-47 with 4:52 to go. Cal was running out of time and didn’t seem to have the juice to mount a comeback.

With 3:31 to go, Washington State led 59-50 as Bonton was set to go to the foul line to give the Cougars a double-digit lead once again. Cal was essentially trading baskets with Washington State, which wasn’t going to get it done. With 1:21 to go, Washington State’s lead would be 65-55. The Bears were in need of more than just a miracle at this stage.

Miracle Max didn’t come to save the Bears in the final minute and change as Washington State walked out with a 71-60 victory. The Cougars showed they are not a team to mess with and that they are much better than their soft schedule indicated. As for the Bears, this was just bad. Even with Bradley out, there’s no way to put a positive spin on a double digit loss at home. Especially to a team that many (including myself) felt was beatable.

With Bradley out, it’s clear that it’s a real struggle for this team to generate any offense. Makale Foreman, Ryan Betley, and Jarred Hyder combined for 21 points on a very inefficient 5-25 shooting from the field. Cal has to get more out of those guys going forward. Even with Bradley in the lineup.

“Well it would help if we could make a 3-point shot at a little higher clip,” Fox said. “Having Grant back allowed us to run more offense we had run earlier in the year, but it wasn’t polished. Without Matt we’re going to have to play like we did last year, make the game ugly, low possessions, and play great defensively.”

“I think it’s a little bit tough,” Kelly added about Bradley’s absence. “He’s one of my closest friends on the team, but I know he’s a great guy. Definitely a team leader. But we have a lot of guys on this team that step up and I’m more than capable of doing that.”

Up next for Cal is a home game on Saturday against Washington. That game will tipoff at 12:00 PM PST on Pac-12 Networks and KGO 810 AM.