Recap: Cal fends off UC Davis
On Tuesday, Cal men’s basketball defeated UC Davis 72-66 at Haas Pavilion. Junior forward Grant Anticevich (13 points & 11 rebounds) and sophomore guard Matt Bradley (19 points & 4 rebounds) led the way for Cal while freshman guard Ezra Manjon (21 points & 6 assists) was the top performer for UC Davis. Cal improves to 5-2 on the season while UC Davis falls to 2-6.
“I thought that was a really good game for us in the fact that we started well offensively,” Cal head coach Mark Fox said after the game. “We finished a lot of plays, we had some turnovers that because we got a little bit too aggressive. But, we built a big lead and so I was pleased with how we started the game. Really on both ends, it wasn’t a perfect half, but it started very well. And we got a little bit immature once we had a double figure lead and did not finish the half well. And then in the second half, we played with the most dangerous thing that you can play against, which is good three-point shooters. And give Davis credit for making eight threes in the second half and storming back.
“In hindsight, I’m really glad that the game got to that point because it was important for us to play in a close game and we got more out of the finish of that game, than we would have had we kept a double figure lead the whole time, although I wish we would have kept a double figure lead the whole time, so a really good experience. Davis’ kids just kept competing. I was very impressed with their team and the job that Jim is doing, so fortunate to win.”
Cal got off to a hot 8-0 start within the first two minutes of the game, forcing UC Davis to call for time with 18:07 to go in the first half. Kareem South got things going with 5 points, rattling home a 3-pointer while Matt Bradley was on the board with a triple of his own. With 15:04 to go in the half, Cal was up 14-7 as South was now up to 7 points on 3-3 shooting from the field. Cal was shooting 6-7 from the field overall, having made their first five shots.
Cal would continue the hot shooting, going up 19-12 with 11:05 to go in the half. Cal was shooting 8-11 from the field and 2-2 from beyond the arc. They had a real chance to take a solid lead into halftime, something they haven’t done yet this season.
Cal would continue to build on their lead, going up 27-14 with 7:49 to go in the half. Bradley was up to 8 points on 3-3 shooting from the field and 2-2 shooting from 3-point range. Cal was on a 6-0 run over the last 54 seconds, starting to gain real separation from the Aggies.
With 3:11 to go in the half, Cal was up 34-16, currently on a 13-2 run. Juhwan Harris-Dyson got a pretty steal and found Kareem South in transition for the basket. Cal was playing well on both ends of the floor, hence the double-digit lead.
Right before halftime, Manjon knocked down a straightway 3-pointer to cut Cal’s lead to 11 points. As a result, Cal was up 36-25 at halftime as Bradley and South each had 11 points for Cal.
“He’s good, I know Ezra,” Austin said of Manjon. “He’s a good player. He has a great opportunity at UC Davis and he played well with this team.”
Rather than putting UC Davis away, Cal allowed the Aggies to creep back into the game as they were now up 45-35 with 14:50 to go. Cal was up to 12 turnovers, not taking good care of the ball. If they continued to turnover the ball at the rate they were doing, this game would get much more interesting than it should.
And get much more interesting it did as UC Davis shaved Cal’s lead to seven points (48-41) with 11:37 to go. Manjon was up to 15 points on 6-11 shooting from the field while Stefan Gonzalez was up to 9 points after a 3-pointer. Turnovers continued to be an issue for Cal.
“I think we let them get back in the game by hitting a lot of shots and playing hard at the start of the second half,” Anticevich said. “It took us a while for us to get going again and then once we started playing hard and competing, I felt like we got ourselves ahead. Credit to them, they played hard and really competitive and were hitting shots.”
Rather than stopping the bleeding, things continued to get worse for Cal as UC Davis cut Cal’s lead to two points (48-46) with 9:49 to go after a 3-pointer from Oliver Gehrke. UC Davis would then take a brief lead before Andre Kelly would score four huge points to give Cal a 52-49 lead. Gonzalez would get a 3-pointer to fall and like that, this game was tied 52-52 with 7:21 to go. UC Davis had the belief that they could win this game as they were shooting 6-9 from deep in the second half.
“I think we gotta give credit to UC Davis,” Austin said. “They played really well. They’re a good team and they shot the ball really well against us.”
Touching more on the perimeter defense, this continues to be an area that Cal struggled in. When asked about it after the game, Austin didn’t sugarcoat anything.
“Not good enough,” Austin said of their perimeter defense. “We were pressuring up, but we can’t let a team hit eight threes on us in the second half. That’s what made it a game.”
“Well, I don’t think it was good enough,” Fox added. “They made some deep threes, some tough threes, but good offense beats good defense. But good offense doesn’t beat great defense. And I didn’t think we played great defense. And you have to play great defense against guys that have a hot hand and we didn’t do that.”
With 3:29 to go, Cal was now up 60-54 as they had gone on an 8-0 run sparked by Bradley and Austin. Cal still had to close it out, but it did look like they were going to find a way to pull it out. UC Davis would shortly cut Cal’s lead to three points, but Austin made sure Cal maintained a six point cushion after knocking down a clutch 3-pointer that had him close to Cal’s bench. Up 63-57 with 1:36 to go, Cal just needed to make sure they knocked down some free throws and not do anything stupid. Things got a little bit closer at the end as Cal would lead 66-61 with 29.9 to go, but in the end, they escaped with a 72-66 win.
“The time was running down, four seconds when I got it,” Austin said calmly about his huge shot. “Just stepped back, shot it, made it, just got back on defense…It was a big momentum play for us. The bench was super happy for us, my teammates were super happy for me, and I think it just helped us on defense. We just were more motivated.”
While Cal did pull out the win and deserves the credit for doing so, this game shouldn’t have been as close as it was. In the end, Cal turned the ball over 15 times and had just 11 assists. Ball movement is a major issue of this team and something that they need to fix. As for UC Davis, hats off to them for playing as well as they did. They shot 11-27 from 3-point range for the game and did a great job at making Cal pay for their careless turnovers.
“I just think it goes into the part about what Paris was talking about and playing the full 40 minutes,” Anticevich said of pulling this win out. “I think we’re getting better at that every single game in competing and playing hard from the start to finish. So obviously we slacked off in the middle of the second half, but I feel like we were able to come back and pick up the pace and play hard and compete and do what we had to do to get the job done, so I think that shows improvement from us, which is something we’ve been doing every game in the season so far.”
Up next for Cal is a road game at San Francisco on Wednesday, December 4th. That game will tipoff at 8:00 PM PST on CBS Sports Network.