On Thursday, Cal men’s basketball fell to the Arizona Wildcats in Tucson by a final score of 76-51. Senior forward Ryan Luther led the way for the Wildcats with 19 points and 5 rebounds on 5-8 shooting from 3-point range while Justice Sueing was the top performer for the Golden Bears with 18 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 steals. Arizona improves to 15-12 overall and 6-8 in the Pac-12 while Cal falls to 5-21 overall and 0-14 in the Pac-12.

Cal got off to an ok start in this game, leading 5-4 with 14:31 to go in the 1st half. Darius McNeill got a 3-pointer to drop while Sueing had a pretty bucket inside. The problem early for both teams was their shooting. Cal was shooting 2-8 from the field while Arizona was shooting 2-7.

Over the next couple of minutes, Arizona was able to get a 10-6 lead after Ira Lee had 4 points inside, one of which was a pretty two-handed jam with no one near him. Arizona was up to 4-10 shooting from the field while Cal was still struggling, shooting 2-9 from the field and 1-7 from 3-point range. Things continued to go Arizona’s way as they would soon go on a 7-0 run to lead 17-9 with 7:18 to go in the half. Arizona was doing a decent job of moving the ball with 5 assists while Cal was really struggling in this department with just 1 assist. There was not a lot of motion and too much isolation ball, something that was an issue earlier in the season.

Things continued to go Arizona’s way as they would lead 24-16 with 2:37 to go in the half after Luther made his first of five 3-pointers of the night. Arizona was up to 8-23 shooting from the field and 7 assists while Cal was still stuck on 1 assist. With such pathetic ball movement, it was amazing Cal wasn’t getting blown out at this juncture. Arizona was doing their part to keep Cal in the game by not shooting a better percentage from the field.

Arizona would finish out the half strong, leading 30-20 at halftime after Luther got another 3-pointer to drop, giving him 6 points at the half. Sueing had 7 points for Cal and was doing his part, but the issue was no one else, especially the Cal bench, was doing much. Arizona was outscoring Cal 15-4 off the bench, getting much more out of their role players.

During the 2nd half, Arizona started to really pull away going up 40-25 with 17:00 to go after Luther got another 3-pointer to fall, giving him 14 points. Defending stretch forwards has been a major weakness of Cal all season and that was certainly made manifest tonight as Luther would go on to tie his season-high of 19 points.

With 15:08 to go, Arizona would lead 43-28. Connor Vanover did get a pretty 3-pointer to fall from dead center, showing off his fantastic shooting touch. However, taking threes wasn’t going to be enough for Cal to get back in this game. They would need to defend much better than what they were.

Unfortunately for Cal, that better defense never came. Arizona was up to a 47-30 lead with 12:32 to go as all signs pointed to a Wildcats victory. Arizona was slowly but surely expanding their lead into the 20s, leading 70-45 with 3:38 to go. Cal was shooting an abysmal 15-51 (29.4%) from the field while Arizona was shooting 25-50 (50%) from the field. After a rough 1st half of shooting, Arizona really found their groove in the 2nd half, taking advantage of Cal’s poor defensive rotations and lack of communication.

In the end, it was a 76-51 victory for Arizona, who snapped a seven game losing streak. Cal in contrast extended their losing streak to 15 games, not having won since December 21 at home against San Jose State. That game feels like eons ago.

For Cal, this is an absolutely brutal stretch that they are going through. The players look disengaged and dejected as soon as their opponents start to get on a bit of a roll. Rather than rolling up their sleeves and going to work, they fall apart and don’t seem to care if they lose by 25 points as opposed to 15 or 10. They don’t seem to think a win is still possible and once you start going down that road, it gets ugly real fast.

The only good thing to say about Cal right now is there is still time for them to avoid a winless Pac-12 season. They have four games left before the Pac-12 Tournament and if they could even get one win, maybe that would give them a new spring in their step.

Up next for Cal is a road game on Sunday at Arizona State. That game will tipoff at 3:00 PM PST on Pac-12 Networks.