Cal MBB runs out of gas at #21 Oregon

On New Year’s Eve, Cal men’s basketball fell to the #21 Oregon Ducks on the road by a final score of 82-69. Oregon redshirt senior forward Eugene Omoruyi led the way for Ducks with 26 points and 6 rebounds while Cal junior guard Matt Bradley finished with 21 points. Oregon improves to 7-1 overall and 2-0 in the Pac-12 while Cal falls to 5-5 overall and 0-3 in the Pac-12.

“Obviously a hard fought Pac-12 game on the road,” Cal head coach Mark Fox said after the game. “I thought in the first half even though we made some errors and had some plays we’d like to have back, I thought we played well.

“Then in the second half, we had a drought. Our defense wasn’t good enough in the second half. We didn’t shoot the three well in the second half, but we competed hard. A little bit disjointed without Grant. We’re going to have to adjust to not having him. One day we’ll have him, but it won’t be tomorrow, so we gotta play better without him.”

Cal got off to a solid start, trailing 16-9 with 12:39 to go in first half. Oregon was shooting 7-11 (63.6%) from the field behind 6 points and 2 rebounds from Omoruyi. Bradley was balling out for Cal with 6 points on 2-2 shooting from deep. He needed to get more help.

With 11:23 to go, Cal shaved Oregon’s lead to five points (16-11) after Matt Bradley found D.J. Thorpe for a pretty slam inside. Cal was hanging tough, giving Oregon a much tougher run than expected.

Cal shaved the lead to four points (20-16) with 7:59 to go in the half as Bradley was up to 9 points on 2-2 shooting from 3-point range and 3-3 shooting from the foul line. He was yet to miss a shot. As for Oregon, Omoruyi was up to 10 points on 5-7 shooting from the field. He was doing his part to keep the Ducks in front.

Cal would then take a 27-26 lead with 5:07 to go in the half after a huge 3-pointer from Bradley. Cal would then lead 30-26 with 3:12 to go in the half as Bradley was up to 15 points. Cal was on an 11-1 run over the last 3:41, giving the Ducks all they could handle.

With 1:23 to go in the half, Cal led 33-29, looking to finish the half strong. Unfortunately for Cal, Oregon closed the half on a 7-2 run, including a buzzer beating triple from Aaron Estrada. His first bucket of the night. It was a brutal way for Cal to end the half. Mark Fox called a timeout hoping to get his guys refocused, but it didn’t go the way he hoped. As a result, Oregon would lead 36-35 at the half.

Still, despite Oregon’s run to close the half, Cal was right in the game down by 1 point. Mark Fox had the Bears ready. Bradley had 15 points and was having one of the best games of his Cal career. As for Oregon, it was Omoruyi that was leading the charge with 15 points of his own.

The game continued to be close early on in the second half as Oregon led 49-47 with 13:57 to go. Oregon was currently on a 6-0 run after Cal took a brief lead. Joel Brown was starting to find his groove for Cal a bit with 5 points. As for Omoruyi, he was up to 19 points while Bradley was still stuck at 15 points yet to attempt a shot in the second half.

Oregon would lead 54-49 with 11:53 to go as Bradley still hadn’t scored yet in the second half. Cal needed him to get going as they had 0 field goals in the last 3:51. Cal was in need of getting back on track. Cal would trail by just four points 62-58 with 7:10 to go. Omoruyi was up to 23 points for the Ducks. As for Bradley, he was finally on the board for the Bears with 17 points, getting his first field goal of the second half to drop off a pretty reverse layup. Makale Foreman was up to 12 points for Cal, giving Bradley some help.

Shortly thereafter, Oregon started to gain some separation after back-to-back threes from Chris Duarte that gave the Ducks a 6-0 run over a 1:09 stretch. With 4:09 to go, Oregon led 71-62, looking like they finally would pull away. With 2:11 to go, Oregon led 76-64. Cal battled tough, but was running out of gas. 0 field goals in the last 4:20 really did the Bears harm along with 8 second half turnovers.

In the end, Oregon walked out with an 82-69 victory. Cal played Oregon much tougher than was expected, but Oregon’s superior talent and home court advantage shone through in the end. Bradley had a fantastic first half, but 6 second half points on just 4 shot attempts won’t get it done. The Ducks clearly figured out something at halftime to quiet him down and no one else was able to pick up the slack.

“I think a combination of things,” Fox said of what accounted for Bradley’s quiet second half. “Let’s give Oregon some credit. He saw the focus of the defense. There were a couple of charges that he committed that we’re going to look at on film. He probably wore down a bit because he hasn’t had that conditioning that you have to have [due to COVID-19 restrictions]. Matt played like an upperclassman, but let’s give Oregon credit.”

For Cal, there’s a lot to be happy about. They’ve struggled on the road during the Mark Fox era, so to play as hard as they did and make this a game is a sign of progress for sure. At the same time, this game is also a reminder of why this team needs to get more talent. Until that talent comes, Cal is going to need to get all they can from their grad transfers Makale Foreman and Ryan Betley. Foreman had a solid night with 14 points, but Betley was just too quiet: 5 points on 2-11 shooting from the field and 1-7 shooting from 3-point range.

“You’re not going to win on the road because the team hasn’t been good enough,” Fox said. “The team has to be good enough before you can win on the road. We’re still a work in progress and I thought in the first half, we shot the three really well, we were unselfish. I thought we competed well and shot the three well in the first half. We just had a drought. I thought when we got in the bonus in the second half I thought we could get to the line and get some points that way…We just put way too much pressure on our defense in the second half.”

Up next for Cal (tentatively) is a game at Oregon State on Saturday at 3:00 PM PST on Pac-12 Networks. The Oregon State-Stanford game was postponed tonight due to COVID-19 tracing in the Oregon State program, so there’s no guarantee the game on Saturday will be played. Stay tuned for updates from GoldenBearReport.com about the status of that game.