Matt Bradley leads Cal MBB past Nicholls State

On Monday, Cal men’s basketball defeated Nicholls State 60-49 in their home opener at Haas Pavilion. Cal guard Matt Bradley led the way for the Golden Bears with 26 points and 6 rebounds while Nicholls State forward Najee Garvin was the top performer for the Colonels with 15 points and 9 rebounds. Cal improves to 2-1 on the season* while Nicholls State falls to 2-2.

“I’d just like to say it was good to play a hard fought game and as strange as it sounds, it’s good to make mistakes,” Cal head coach Mark Fox said after the game. “It’s what you need to grow and learn. I felt like we had a lot of good experiences. Our defense was good to start the game. [On offense] we were sloppy, but let’s give Nicholls State some credit. They have a quality program.”

Early on, this was game was very choppy as Nicholls State led 4-3 with 15:27 to go in the opening half. Garvin was up to 4 points for the Colonels on 2-2 shooting from the field. Cal grad transfer wing Ryan Betley was on the board for the Bears with a triple. It was Cal’s lone field goal as they were shooting an icy 1-9 from the field.

Over the next few minutes, it continued to be an ugly game as Cal would lead 6-4 with 11:39 to go in the half. Cal grad transfer guard Makale Foreman got on the board with a triple of his own. Cal was shooting 2-13 (15.4%) from the field with 5 turnovers while Nicholls State was shooting 2-7 from the field with 7 turnovers. Neither team was in a good groove.

Cal would shortly thereafter take an 8-4 lead after a nice bucket inside from freshman wing forward Monty Bowser with 11:25 to go in the half. Unfortunately, Bowser took a hard fall in the process and had to leave the game. He did not return.

“The only information I have is he was taken by ambulance to the hospital and I think he’s doing ok,” Fox said of Bowser. “That’s the only update I have.”

In the next few minutes, Cal started to wake up a bit, taking a 16-6 lead with 8:16 to go in the half. Grant Anticevich knocked down a 3-pointer while Foreman was up to 6 points following another 3-pointer of his own. As for Bradley, he was pretty quiet with just 2 points.

With 3:53 to go in the half, Cal was now up 21-11. Anticevich and Bradley now each had 5 points for the Bears. As for Garvin, he was up to 7 points for the Colonels. Cal was playing pretty solid defense, though it wasn’t like Nicholls State was doing much to help their own cause. Both teams were still shooting very poor as neither team was shooting above 30% from the field.

At halftime, Cal led 23-18 as Nicholls State closed the half on a 12-2 run over the final 6:00. Garvin was the top performer for the Colonels with his 7 points and 6 rebounds. As for Bradley, he was starting to find a bit of a groove with 7 points and 4 rebounds.

To start the second half, Nicholls State got off to a 5-0 run, tying the game up at 23 apiece. Cal didn’t let the game stay tied for long as they would go on a 7-2 run to lead 30-25 with 14:41 to go. Bradley was now up to 10 points for the Bears while Garvin had 11 points for the Colonels. As the game was heading towards the final stretch, it was shaping up to be a close game.

With 12:55 to go, Cal still lead by 5 points, up 33-28. The game was 30-28 before a clutch 3-pointer from Betley, who now had 6 points on the night. One major area for concern for Cal was their interior defense as Nicholls State was outscoring them 16-8 in the paint.

Over the next few minutes, the game continued to remain tight as Cal led 40-34 with 8:34 to go. Bradley was up to 15 points. Without him, Cal would have been in major trouble.

“Matt’s a great competitor and he got two fouls in the first half,” Fox said. “I thought he was able to play with the fouls. He got to the line, made a few in a row. He’s a proven winner and he understands what it takes to finish, and it was good to see him play as well as he did in the second half.”

Moments later, Garvin scored his 15th point of the night as well, making it a 40-36 lead for the Bears with 7:44 to go. He too was doing all he could to keep his team in the game.

That would be as close as Nicholls State would get as Cal went on a 9-0 run to lead 49-36 with 3:52 to go. Anticevich was now up to 11 points, finding his footing with his jump shot. Cal was going to win this game provided they didn’t collapse in the final moments.

“Yeah, my teammates are doing a great job of getting me open looks which made it easy,” Anticevich said. “Just finding a rhythm, the last two games, I didn’t shoot as well as we normally would and a big part of it is we haven’t played against competition in a long. So, it takes a little bit of time to get a rhythm, so tonight I felt I got that rhythm back.”

In the end, Cal did hang on to win by double digits 60-49. Nicholls State did cut it to within 7 points in the final minute thanks to some Cal turnovers, but the game was never really in question. Bradley took it up to another gear when his team needed it most. He was the best player on the floor as expected.

For Cal, this wasn’t the prettiest of wins, but given the lack of practice time due to COVID-19 and the oddities that come with this season, they should overall feel good about this win. They fought through a rough patch, found a way to pull out the win, and their star player Matt Bradley did what stars do.

That all said, there’s a lot that Cal needs to work on: 20 turnovers is terrible, 40.0% shooting from the field is pretty weak, a +1 rebound margin isn’t great, and getting outscored 24-18 in the paint isn’t good, either. This by no means was a good performance, but if you’re going to play poorly, you should do it in a game that you still win by double digits.

“They didn’t play particularly well down the stretch,” Fox said of his two point guards Joel Brown and Makale Foreman. “Their decision making was poor. They need to play better, but I think the two of them as they continue to grow and improve will be a good tandem for us. But I think they’ll look at the last few minutes and wish they could have some plays back.”

“I think as Coach Fox did obviously, we are a little behind what we wanted to be,” Anticevich added. “It’s going to take us a bit of time to get through that, but everyone in the country is going through the same situation and we feel like we played better today than our past two games and just looking forward to continuing to build and break through that barrier.”

Up next for Cal is a home game against #25 Arizona State on Thursday night. That game will tipoff at 7:00 PM PST on Pac-12 Networks. In his post-game presser, Fox didn’t mince words when asked if he thought his team was ready:

“Do I think we’re ready? We’re not. We’re going to have to overachieve to give ourselves a chance to win. Arizona State has a great team.”

Note: Mark Fox also addressed the status of sophomore forward D.J. Thorpe, who hasn’t been seeing the floor much to start the season:

“D.J. was ill when we got back from the trip, so as a precaution he was in isolation and he missed practice. He has obviously tested negative. He missed some time. He just needs some experience. He had a disruption this week. It’s hard to step on the floor when you don’t know what the game plan is.”

*GoldenBearReport.com listed Cal as 0-1 coming into this matchup. It turns out the win over NAIA opponent Northwestern is counting as win in the record books. We should have listed Cal as 1-1 coming into tonight’s contest.