On Thursday, Cal men’s basketball defeated #21 Colorado by a final score of 76-62. Cal sophomore Matt Bradley led the way for the Golden Bears with 26 points and 6 rebounds while junior guard McKinley Wright IV was the top performer for the Buffaloes with 18 points and 4 assists. Cal improves to 12-16 overall and 6-9 in the Pac-12 while Colorado falls to 21-8 overall and 10-6 in the Pac-12.
“A really terrific team brings out the best in you,” Cal head coach Mark Fox said after the game. “I think Colorado has a terrific team. A team we have unbelievable respect for, and it brought the best out in us for sure tonight. I think they did that to us twice this year, to be honest with you. Because they’re just so sound, they’re so good on both ends of the court and that’s the best that we’ve played and really proud of our team, but we beat a terrific basketball team tonight.”
For Cal, to get a win over a ranked team shows tremendous growth from where they were at the beginning of Pac-12 play. Many thought they might only win a game or two in league. Instead, they’ve won six and beaten a ranked team along the way.
“It feels really good,” Bradley said of the win. “Colorado, they’re a really good team. One through ten, all them dudes can play. It was a tough game and when we pulled it out, when the bell rung, when the game was over, it felt good.”
Cal started a different lineup as Fox elected to roll with freshmen D.J. Thorpe and Kuany Kuany along with regular starters Paris Austin, Matt Bradley, and Grant Anticevich. It was an interesting move that caught a lot of us by surprise.
“Well I thought in the face of adversity the other day they competed really hard,” Fox said of starting Thorpe and Kuany. “A couple times a year your team looks like zombies and those kids kept battling. And my gut was telling me the last couple of days let me reward them. Let me reward them for how hard they played in Seattle. Let me start them. Let me give them a taste of it. They knew that they wouldn’t be out there long and I thought they both handled it very well and it got us off to a really good start.”
“They just compete really hard,” Bradley said of Thorpe and Kuany. “They’re really aggressive, coach noticed that. Us as a whole team noticed that. Whenever they’re on the floor they play really aggressive and really hard. That’s what we needed for the game. And they started, so I’m proud of them. Two freshmen guys starting.”
With 11:30 to go in the 1st half, Cal led 15-13. Senior guard Kareem South was off to a hot start for Cal with 6 points on 3-3 shooting from the field while junior guard McKinley Wright IV had 6 points for Colorado on 3-3 shooting from the field. It was a clean game up to this point as Cal had 2 turnovers while Colorado had 0. Cal was shooting 7-12 (58.3%) from the field while Colorado was shooting 6-12 (50.0%). With 10:53 to go in the half, Cal would lead 18-15 after Bradley hit a 3-pointer for Cal while Wright hit a jumper for Colorado.
Cal would continue to hold the lead, up 24-23 with 7:38 to go in the half. Bradley was up to 8 points for Cal while Wright was up to 8 points for Colorado. There was good energy from Cal early on, having just forced a Colorado turnover from Tyler Bey. Shortly thereafter, Bradley would convert a 4-point play for Cal as he was up to 12 points and had Cal on a 7-0 run. 28-23 Cal led with 7:22 to go in the half.
Cal extended their lead to go up 33-24 with 4:29 to go in the half after Bradley made a pair of technical foul shots after Colorado head coach Tad Boyle flipped his lid, thinking Bradley wasn’t there in time to draw a charge.
“I give off so many charges,” Bradley said. “I take charges, but I also give charges, so I kinda know when I make a charge what they’re doing and I just read like ok, they do this when I drive, so I kinda pick that up from them and when they drive I’m like alright, I’ll get you right back. So, it’s kinda been like a take and pull situation. So, yeah, just read’em.”
With 57.5 to go in the half, Cal led 36-26 after Joel Brown got on the board with a triple. South would nail a jumper to give Cal a 38-26 lead at the half as he was up to 8 points. Matt Bradley led all scorers with 17 points while Lucas Siewert and McKinley Wright IV each had 8 points for Colorado.
To start the second half, Cal would lead 41-33 with 15:38 to go as Colorado was doing their best to get back in the game. South was up to 11 points for Cal while Siewert was up to 11 points for Colorado. Bradley’s 17 points still led all scorers. Both teams were struggling to score as Cal had 0 points in the last 2:27 while Colorado had 0 points in the last 2:11.
With 11:45 to go, Cal led 47-37. Colorado had made just 2 of their last 10 field goal attempts and were an icy 4-15 (26.7%) from beyond the arc. Cal in contrast was shooting 6-13 (46.2%) from beyond the arc.
Over the next few minutes, Cal would gain serious separation, leading 56-40 with 8:59 to go. South was having himself a whale of a game with 14 points after making another 3-pointer. Bradley was up to 24 points. All was going Cal’s way.
With 6:41 to go, Cal led 58-44 after Thorpe rattled home a jumper. Cal was having a fantastic night against the #21 team in the nation. They really couldn’t have asked for a better outing. They were in a good flow offensively while not allowing Colorado to do the same.
With 5:01 to go, Kareem South would get up to 17 points after a 3-pointer while Andre Kelly was up to 6 points after a pretty bucket inside. McKinley Wright IV was up to 14 points for Colorado. Doing his part to keep Colorado in the game. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough as Cal was up 64-48. Over the next couple of minutes, Colorado wouldn’t make up much ground as Cal led 66-52 with 3:04 to go. Paris Austin, who had a relatively quiet night was up to 7 points after a layup inside. Colorado needed a miracle to pull out the win.
“It’s kinda been a rough stretch, but for me I just try to take one game at a time,” South said. “Trust coach’s plan, trust the process, and I’m just trying to do the role that coach has given me and I just try to excel and be the best that I can be for my team to win and everybody did their role tonight.”
“He was really aggressive,” Bradley said of South. “He balled out. I’m super proud of him. Every shot he took it looked like it was going in and it did. I’m really happy for him to have this game. We got senior night coming up for him on Saturday and he’s going to ball out again.”
In the end, Miracle Max wasn’t there to save Colorado as Cal walked out with a 76-62 win. Matt Bradley finished with 26 points and 6 rebounds on 5-7 shooting from 3-point range while Kareem South finished with 19 points. Just an absolutely fantastic win for this young Cal team. Rather than letting Colorado get back in the game, they found a way to fend them off and walk out with a comfortable win.
On a night when Cal hoops legend Shareef Abdur-Rahim received the Pete Newell Career Achievement Award, Cal brought their A-game and were rewarded handsomely for it. Matt Bradley had a monster game, the supporting players stepped up, and Cal played really good defense, not allowing Colorado to get into a good rhythm. There’s honestly not much for Cal to complain about.
“It just shows our resiliency as a team, as a collective,” South said of the win. “I think that obviously that game against Washington was a stinger. So, we knew that we had to bounce back and so it started in practice in us analyzing film what we did wrong and obviously Colorado’s a really good team, they’re top of our league. So, we knew we had to come in and give our best basketball.”
“I thought that we played, I don’t think we played 40 minutes of good basketball, but I thought that we obviously defensively outside of the start of the game, I thought our defense stabilized and we played both halves pretty well,” Fox added. “We played defense in the second half away from our bench pretty well. We shot threes well, we were patient offensively, we had less than ten turnovers. We did a lot of things that contributed to us winning.”
As for Colorado, this loss stings. They’re in the mix for a Pac-12 regular season title and they lost a game that they should have won on paper. There’s a ton of pressure for them to bounce back at Stanford on the weekend. Otherwise they will have really shot themselves in the foot.
Up next for Cal is a home game against Utah on Saturday. That game will tipoff at 3:00 PM PST on Pac-12 Networks.
“Utah, they’ve got a great young team,” Fox said of their upcoming matchup. “I mean, they have a great team. They’ve had some injuries, he’s a terrific coach. They’ve got a talented young team that as they grow together, man they’re going to be a handful for a long time.”
