On Saturday, Cal men’s basketball defeated Washington State 76-69. Darius McNeill led the way for the Golden Bears with 17 points on 8-16 shooting from the field while C.J. Elleby was the top performer for the Cougars with 20 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists. Cal improves to 7-22 overall and 2-15 in the Pac-12 while Washington State falls to 11-18 overall and 4-12 in the Pac-12.
“I’m very happy with win number two in conference,” Cal head coach Wyking Jones said after the game. “I felt like our defensive pressure really helped us tonight. Saved us tonight. Anytime you play against a team that can shoot the ball the way that they shoot the ball with guys that can score the ball the way that they score the ball with Franks and Elleby, you never feel like any lead is safe. It just feels like when they made a run or got it within under 10 to make a us a little nervous, it felt like we made a defensive play. So us having 13 steals and forcing 20 turnovers is what saved us tonight. Is what got us the win. 30 points off of turnovers was the key tonight.”
“We got two good wins this week, but we’re gonna keep our composure and continue to stick together, that’s the main thing,” Cal sophomore Justice Sueing said of the win. “We’ve been through a lot of adversity, we’re finally seeing the other side of it, so we’re gonna continue to build on it going into our next game against Stanford.”
Cal got off to a solid 9-5 start in this game with 15:35 to go in the half as Justice Sueing, Darius McNeill, Paris Austin, and Matt Bradley all got in on the action. Robert Franks had the first five points for the Cougars, doing his part to keep the game close. With 11:51 to go in the half, Cal had a 16-11 lead as they were shooting 6-12 from the field. With Franks still stuck on five points, it was Elleby who got hot for the Cougars with 6 points. The issue for the Cougars was no one else was able to get into any sort of rhythm.
Cal would continue to stay in front of the Cougars, leading 29-20 with 7:08 to go until halftime. Franks was up to 12 points for the Cougars leading all scorers while Cal was rolling with a much more balanced attack as McNeill was the one pacing them with 6 points. The Cougars would respond with a mini 6-0 run as Aljaz Kunc and Jervae Robinson each got on the scoreboard with a pair of threes. Cal was now up 29-26 with 4:49 to go as Washington State had new life.
“No, no. We just wanted to play a good game and play them the best that we could play them,” Jones said when asked if there was any emphasis on taking advantage of the Cougars’ bad performance at Stanford. “To me, it looked as if they were very loose out there being undermanned. Sometimes teams like that can be dangerous because they feel like the odds are stacked up against them and so they don’t really have anything to lose. And sometimes playing those games can be tough because the eight guys that they were able to suit up say hey you know what, we’re undermanned, so we’re just going to go out there and just have fun. And so sometimes those games are dangerous.”
Cal would respond well as Paris Austin converted a 3-point play to give them a 32-26 lead with 3:47 to go. With 7 points, Austin was doing his part to keep the Golden Bears in front. A 3-pointer from Connor Vanover, a layup from Austin, and a jumper from Bradley would give Cal a 39-29 lead with 54.9 to go in the half. Cal wouldn’t let the Cougars inch any closer before halftime as a turnaround jumper from Grant Anticevich gave them a 41-29 lead at the half.
Cal opened the second half strong, leading 46-33 with 15:37 to go. Austin (9 points), Sueing (8 points), Vanover (6 points), McNeill (6 points), and Andre Kelly (5 points) were all chipping in while it was still the Franks (12 points) and Elleby (11 points) show for the Cougars.
“We play best when we share the ball,” Sueing said. “Washington was a prime example and we carried that on into today. When everyone is shooting, it’s hard for teams to guard us. It spreads the floor out, it gives us easier plays to make and we’re just going to continue building on this.”
With 10:58 to go, Cal was up 58-45 as all things continued to go their way. McNeill was starting to get things going for the Golden Bears with 12 points while Sueing was up to 10 points. Elleby (14 points) and Franks (12 points) continued to do their thing, but they needed more help from their already depleted bench. One thing Cal was doing right at this point was getting to the foul line where they were shooting 9-10. Even though they would finish shooting 16-26 for the game, they should overall feel good about how they did in this department.
After some crazy sequences of plays where balls bounced off rims, dunks were missed, and Austin was called for a flagrant foul, Cal still had a solid 62-52 lead with 7:11 to go. The only question was could they close out the game. The Cougars were still hanging around and not about to go away.
Things got a little close as the Cougars would get within 6 points (62-56) with 6:06 to go. McNeill and Franks would exchange threes, making it a 65-59 Cal lead with 5:31 to go. Rather than letting Washington State narrow the gap even more, Cal extended their lead to 10 points (69-59) with 4:47 to go after a dunk from Vanover and a driving layup from McNeill.
“I was feeling it,” McNeill said. “When I saw my first three went falling, I just had to get to the rim. Do whatever I can to help the team win.”
Washington State was able to cut Cal’s lead to seven points (69-62) after a 3-pointer from Ahmed Ali, but that was the closest they would get in the final minutes. With 1:55 to go, Cal would lead 72-62 and from there walk out with a 76-69 victory after a windmill dunk by Juhwan Harris-Dyson served as the final exclamation.
For Cal, this win feels good because they didn’t let Thursday’s huge win over Washington make them exhale too much. They came out focused and took advantage of a Washington State team that is banged up and without four players who are all in concussion protocol: Carter Skaggs, Viont’e Daniels, Jeff Pollard, and James Streeter. After losing their first 15 games of Pac-12 play, Cal has a little bit of momentum going into next week’s game at Stanford.
“Leading up to the win on Thursday, I felt like we were playing good basketball,” Jones said. “I felt like our guys were starting to really figure it out. Close game against Stanford and UCLA and Colorado, all the games, Arizona State on the road. I felt like were playing good basketball it was just a matter of time that were going to get the reward and get a win and then our guys would fall into a comfort zone, I felt like and I think that that’s what happened tonight.
“Once we got a chance to see a victory, the guys could breathe a little bit easier and I think their confidence grew after Thursday night. And they saw that if they did it together and played team basketball that we could be successful and so I know I slept a lot better Thursday night, I know the guys did. I just felt like once we got one, got over the hump, I felt like we could continue to play good basketball.”
Throughout this entire season, Cal has done the best they can to stick together and not get at each other’s throats. Even during that losing skid, they did their best to stay positive. As a result, they’re finally starting to see some success with these past couple of wins.
“Any other team would have been down, getting mad at each other, you can see it on the court,” McNeill said. “But we still stayed together. We’re still energetic. We still go over to each other’s houses to play games. When we were 0-16 or whatever [0-15], if you was around us, you wouldn’t think we was losing, so it’s just us winning now is just making it better. We never changed.”
As for Washington State, they’re really in a rough patch right now. They got clobbered by Stanford and lost to a Cal team that by all accounts is the worst power five conference school in the country (Vanderbilt is making a case with an 0-16 record in the SEC, though). After sweeping the Arizona schools on the road, things looked so promising for them, but now, not so much. The hope for them is to get healthy and give Franks and Elleby more support.
Up next for Cal is a road game at Stanford on Thursday, March 7. That game will tipoff at 8:00 PM PST on ESPNU.
“It just would mean that we’re finishing up the season with some momentum,” Jones said of a possible win over Stanford. “At the end of the day, you want to be as good as you can be at the end of the season and show improvement and I think that if we could go down and get one, it does that. It also makes Vegas interesting. If we can go into Vegas with a three-game winning streak, I think that, who knows what happens? Especially with the way the league is this year.”
