On Wednesday, Cal men’s basketball fell to Arizona State in their Pac-12 home opener by a final score of 80-66 without their starting point guard Paris Austin, who is still nursing a sprained ankle. Remy Martin (24 points) and Zylan Cheatham (16 points) led the way for the Sun Devils while Matt Bradley (19 points) and Darius McNeill (16 points) were the top scorers for Cal. Bradley’s 19 points is a career-high. Arizona State improves to 11-4 overall and 2-1 in the Pac-12 while Cal falls to 5-10 overall and 0-3 in the Pac-12.
“Very difficult, disappointing loss,” Cal head coach Wyking Jones said after the game. “Obviously we came out of the gates and did a good job and built a comfortable lead. It shifted at the end of the first half. We let them make the run leading into halftime. In the second half, we told our guys the first five minutes is going to be crucial. I think the play that summed it all up is we threw the ball over the top on an out of bounds play and their guys ran and dove on the ball and called a time out and for me, that’s how the game went. Where they, 50/50 plays, we were 7 for 21 and so we knew that they were going to be a tough physical team. They didn’t look like it in the first half, not until the end of the first half and then the second half, they showed us that they’re more physical, tougher. They played tougher than we did tonight.
“We need our point guard back. Our offense was stifled. Matt Bradley has given us everything he has. Darius is as well, but those guys aren’t point guards. And so, we need to get Paris Austin back. I think they fed off of us not being able to score. They fed off of, their offense got ramped up when they were able to get stops. We just don’t have the same flow offensively that we have when we have Paris.”
Cal got off to a strong start early on in this game, leading 7-2 with 15:11 to go in the first half. Connor Vanover nailed a pretty 3-pointer to go along with a blocked shot, giving Cal an offensive spark as well as sound defense in the paint. Arizona State made 1 of their first 7 shots, really struggling to get anything going on offense.
Cal continued to build on their lead, going up 10-4 with 11:42 to go in the half. Jacobi Gordon nailed a 3-pointer to extend Cal’s lead while Arizona State continued to struggle on offense. Taeshon Cherry chucked up a couple of ugly shots that pretty much summed up the Sun Devils’ offensive woes.
The struggles continued for the Sun Devils as Cal built up their lead 19-10 with 7:35 to go in the half. Justice Sueing and Matt Bradley got things going from beyond the arc, each knocking down a 3-pointer. Cal was shooting 4-9 from 3-point range at this point while Arizona State in contrast was shooting an abysmal 3-18 from the field.
With 3:03 to go in the half, Cal held a 33-24 lead after Matt Bradley had a super easy layup, slicing through Arizona State’s defense with ease. With 9 points on 3-4 shooting from the field, Bradley was doing a good job pacing the Golden Bears while Luguentz Dort had 7 points for the Sun Devils on 3-5 shooting from the field.
“Well coach emphasized, we ran a 2 as you could see, but we was emphasizing packing in the paint,” Darius McNeill said. “We was relying on Remy to shoot, the other three guards to shoot because they weren’t shooting really well in conference play so far. That was the game plan so we was making them shoot, getting long rebounds, and going out and converting on the other end.”
Rather than letting Cal continue to extend their lead, Arizona State finally woke up, going on a 9-2 run to close out the half. Remy Martin really caught fire for the Sun Devils, finishing with 12 points at halftime. To Cal’s credit, they were still able to take 35-33 lead into halftime, but it was clear that Arizona State wasn’t going to go down without a fight.
“What was changed was Remy Martin started hitting shots,” Wyking Jones said. “So now you can’t keep the zone as tight, you gotta go out and guard him. And so when you gotta go out and guard the guys at the top of the key, it opens up the high post and then they started hurting us. They had the one play where they ran through the high post and went back door and got a dunk. So, he played a great game. Gotta give him credit. He comes into the game shooting 19 percent from three and he goes five for seven. When you’re playing the statistics you say, okay, let that guy shoot. We did that in the beginning the game and he made us pay.”
The second half got off to a sloppy start for Cal. Zylan Cheatham got to the foul line to tie the game up before Matt Bradley committed a turnover off a bad inbounds pass that resulted in Kimani Lawrence calling for time after recovering the ball with 19:29 to go.
Over the next few minutes, it would be a bit of a back and forth affair as Arizona State would lead 44-41 with 15:59 to go in the game. Justice Sueing got up to 7 points after knocking down a pair of free throws, but Zylan Cheatham would strike back with a 3-point play. Both teams were doing a good job of attacking the rim and getting to the line, but neither team was doing a good job of stopping the other.
With 11:32 to go, Arizona State still had a 3 point lead (47-44), but the struggles for both teams were real. Cal had 0 field goals over the last 6:41 while Arizona State was on a scoring drought that lasted 3 minutes and 21 seconds. Remy Martin hadn’t yet scored in the second half, not able to build on the sizzling end he had to the first half. Matt Bradley was up to 11 points for Cal while Zylan Cheatham had 14 points for Arizona State.
Martin’s silence wouldn’t last for long as he would quickly nail a couple of 3-pointers to put Arizona State up 53-44 with 9:46 to go, giving him 18 points on the game. While the game had been a back and forth affair for much of the second half, it was clear that the Sun Devils were starting to pull away.
Over the next few minutes, Cal would play the Sun Devils even, trailing 64-55 with 5:56 to go. Darius McNeill and Matt Bradley each had 14 points for Cal while Remy Martin (21 points) and Zylan Cheatham (16 points) paced Arizona State. Down by 9, Cal still had a chance to win, but they needed to make a run to close the deficit.
Over the next couple of minutes, Cal failed to go on the type of run that they needed, instead trading baskets and free throws with Arizona State. Down 70-61 with 3:41 to go, time was on the side of the Sun Devils, putting Cal in a situation where they needed to put up points in bunches while also getting a sequence of stops.
Rather than getting the necessary stops and buckets to come back, Cal was unable to come back in the final minutes. Arizona State would walk away with an 80-66 victory. Cal did some good things in the first half to take the lead at halftime, but they were unable to put together a strong enough second half to come out victorious. By allowing Arizona State to close out the first half on a 9-2 run, Cal wasn’t able to capitalize on a lot of good things that they did in that opening half.
“Yeah, based on how we started the game,” Wyking Jones said when asked if he feels his team should have won the game. “We still shoot 38 percent from three, but I felt like we had some really good looks that we normally knock down. Connor had pretty much all four of his looks was wide open. Not having Paris out there, it’s a different flow. Even for me. It’s just a completely different flow.”
“I think first half, we played both ends really well and then the second half we kinda went on a drought for a couple of minutes without scoring and were defending really well,” Matt Bradley added. “Then once we started scoring second half they were scoring as well, and they got in a double bonus and that kinda hurt us.”
Up next for Cal is a game on Saturday against the Arizona Wildcats. That game will tipoff at 7:30 PM PST on Pac-12 Networks.
Note: Wyking Jones said after the game that he expects Paris Austin to play on Saturday: “I think he’ll play on Saturday. We’re hopeful that he’ll play on Saturday. We need him to play on Saturday.”
