On Saturday, Cal men’s basketball fell to #19 Arizona in Tucson by a final score of 66-54. DeAndre Ayton led the way for Arizona with 26 points and 20 rebounds on 9-12 shooting from the field. Justice Sueing was the top performer for Cal with 17 points and 5 rebounds on 8-13 shooting from the field. Arizona finishes the regular season 24-7 overall and 14-4 in the Pac-12, giving them the regular season Pac-12 title. Cal finishes the regular season 8-23 overall and 2-16 in the Pac-12.
Despite coming in as heavy underdogs, Cal didn’t play like a team that planned on losing. They battled and competed from the opening tip, never letting Arizona gain the type of separation that they wanted. Arizona jumped out to a 10-6 lead early on, but was unable to build on it, allowing Cal to go up 17-16 with 11:55 to go in the half after a 3-pointer from Darius McNeill.
What allowed Cal to gain that early lead was their ability to take care of the ball and get easy looks inside. Cal’s first 14 points came in the paint and they only turned the ball over 4 times during the entire first half. Justice Sueing, Juhwan Harris-Dyson, and Kingsley Okoroh all did a good job of scoring inside and making the right play. They came in with a game plan and stuck to it, even if Arizona started to gain a little separation.
At the very end of the first half, Cal forced a miss, which resulted in a 3-pointer from Don Coleman at the buzzer, putting them down by only three points (38-35) at halftime. Justice Sueing led Cal with 10 points at the half while Darius McNeill tied Allen Crabbe’s freshman 3-point record (62) with two 3-pointers. DeAndre Ayton led Arizona with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
During the second half, Cal continued to fight and not go away. Every time you thought Arizona was going to pull away, Cal found a way to get a stop or get a basket. While Justice Sueing was the top scorer for Cal, it was really a team effort for Cal to stay in this game. Don Coleman had 5 points in the second half and played with a ton of effort and passion. He dove on the floor, found ways to get to the line, and made things tough for Arizona. Cal trailed by only 2 points with 11:51 to go and found themselves in a tie game (53-53) with 5:49 to go.
Unfortunately for Cal, they ran out of gas down in the final 5 minutes, scoring just one more point. Arizona found a way to gain the necessary separation to put their seniors in the game with no drama in the final minute of the game. Cal did all they could to keep this game close, but they simply didn’t have the energy to finish the game in the final minutes.
What really made the difference in this game was the performance of DeAndre Ayton, who consistently delivered the goods for his team all night long. While it took the rest of the Wildcats 35 minutes to wake up, Ayton played great basketball for the entire game. Every time Arizona really needed a basket, Ayton stepped up, whether it was with a dunk inside or a midrange jumper. Ayton did it all in this game and showed why he’s going to be a top pick in the upcoming NBA Draft.
What also hurt Cal was the lack of production from their top big man Marcus Lee, who finished with 6 points and 5 rebounds. With Ayton playing like he was, Cal needed more from Lee, but he never found the type of rhythm that he needed. He had a couple of nice dunks and moves inside, but it wasn’t nearly enough.
While this game didn’t end up going the way Cal wanted it to, they should be commended for they way they battled and competed. It would have been easy for Cal to give up and throw in the towel. Instead, they stuck to the game plan that Wyking Jones outlined and they almost came out with the win as a result.
Up next for Cal is the Pac-12 Tournament. They are locked into the #12 seed and will play on Wednesday at 2:30 PM PST against Stanford.
Note: Cal women’s basketball lost to UCLA in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 Tournament on Friday. Click here for the recap.
