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Ice cold shooting does Cal in at UCLA

On Sunday, Cal men’s basketball lost to UCLA by a final score of 50-40. UCLA junior guard Chris Smith led the way for the Bruins with 17 points while Cal sophomore guard Matt Bradley finished with 17 points as well. Cal falls to 8-10 overall and 2-3 in the Pac-12 while UCLA improves to 9-9 overall and 2-3 in the Pac-12.

Early on, this game was tight as UCLA led 4-3 with 15:51 to go in the 1st half. Chris Smith had a reverse layup while sophomore forward Jalen Hill had a dunk for UCLA. As for Cal, Matt Bradley was on the board with a 3-pointer. With 10:22 to go in the half, UCLA would lead 13-7 as Hill was really hurting Cal with 9 points. Cal needed to find an answer for him.

With 7:58 to go in the half, UCLA would lead 16-7 after a straightaway 3-pointer from Smith. He was up to 5 points. UCLA was shooting 6-12 (50.0%) from the field while Cal was shooting 4-17 (23.5%). To Cal’s credit, they didn’t give up and were rewarded for it as they slowly clawed their way back into the game. Rather than extending their lead, UCLA found themselves hanging on to a 20-15 lead with 3:12 to go in the half. Hill led UCLA with 11 points on 4-4 shooting from the field. As for Bradley, he was up to 9 points for Cal on 4-8 shooting from the field. He was carrying Cal as his teammates were collectively shooting 3-17 (17.6%) from the field.

At halftime, UCLA led 22-21 as Cal was back in the game thanks to other players stepping up. Freshman forward Kuany Kuany had a jumper, freshman forward D.J. Thorpe had a put-back, etc. Hill (11 points) and Bradley (9 points) were leading their respective teams.

To begin the 2nd half, this game remained tight as UCLA led 27-25 with 15:27 to go. Smith was up to 8 points for UCLA after a tough bucket inside plus the foul. Bradley was yet to score in the half as he was still at 9 points. Cal needed him to get going.

Over the next few minutes, that’s when the wheels started to fall off for Cal. With 11:35 to go, UCLA was up 33-25 as they were now on a 9-0 run over the last 4:26. Redshirt freshman guard Tyger Campbell got on the board for UCLA with a 3-pointer, helping to give UCLA more of a cushion. Matt Bradley still hadn’t scored in the half as UCLA was outscoring Cal 11-4 coming out of halftime.

With 7:49 to go, Cal was being held scoreless for 8+ minutes as UCLA led 38-25. UCLA was on a 14-0 run over the last 8:12 and a 16-2 run over the last 10:42. Smith had 13 points for UCLA while nobody was in double figures for Cal. Which means Matt Bradley still hadn’t scored in the half.

With 6:51 to go, we were at a media timeout, but nothing had changed. The score was still 38-25 UCLA with 6:51 to go. Cal was shooting 2-17 from the field in the half. This was bad. Shortly thereafter, Cal finally scored and it was none other than Matt Bradley that ended the drought. With 5:21 to go, UCLA was now up 39-27.

Rather than that basket being the start of something that could turn things around for Cal, it wasn’t. UCLA would lead 41-30 with 3:44 to go as senior guard Paris Austin would attempt two free throws after the break, hoping to cut UCLA’s lead to single digits. Austin would make both free throws, hoping that could be the start of something good for Cal. Once again, it wasn’t. With 1:12 to go, UCLA led 47-37. At this point, the only question would be whether or not Cal could reach 40 points. A 3-pointer from freshman guard Dimitrios Klonaras avoided that embarrassment from Cal, but in the end, a 50-40 loss didn’t look a whole lot better.

After a choppy 1st half in which Cal was very much alive, the 2nd half was an utter disaster. The offense went through an 11 minute stretch in which they didn’t score. I know Cal doesn’t have the most talented roster in the world, but that’s embarrassing. No way to sugar coat it. Cal’s coaching staff has to figure out ways to get their players going when things aren’t going their way.

Up next for Cal is a home game against Stanford on Sunday, January 26th. That game will tipoff at 3:00 PM PST on ESPNU.

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