On Saturday, Cal men’s basketball lost to Utah by a final score of 82-64. Sedrick Barefield led the way for the Runnin’ Utes with 21 points on 8-18 shooting from the field and 5-12 shooting from 3-point range. Justice Sueing was the top performer for the Golden Bears with 20 points and 7 rebounds on 7-13 shooting from the field and 3-6 shooting from 3-point range. Utah improves to 11-8 overall and 5-2 in the Pac-12 while Cal falls to 5-15 overall and 0-8 in the Pac-12.
“Before the game, I challenged the guys, we’ve been talking about putting 40 minutes together, and before the game I said you know what fellas, let’s put together 20 minutes first,” Cal head coach Wyking Jones said after the game. “Let’s focus on 20 and then we’ll come back at halftime and regroup and talk about it and then put together 20 in the second half.
“I felt like we were able to do that. They hit some unbelievable shots. In the first half we were able to match it. We knocked down seven threes in the first half. And so, we hit shots in the first half. In the second half I felt like we settled too much. We had mismatches. They played a matchup zone. We’re the quicker team. I felt like we took too many pullups. Tough contested pullups and I think that really hurt us on the offensive end. With every team when you can’t score, or you go through a scoring drought, the energy and execution on defense seems to take a toll and when you can’t score it’s tough and so to me, that’s what happened tonight.”
Utah got out in front 14-7 with 14:57 to go in the first half, going on an 8-0 run early on. Sedrick Barefield scored 6 of those 14 points on 2-4 shooting from 3-point range, getting in a nice groove. To counter Barefield’s strong start, Wyking Jones brought in Juhwan Harris-Dyson to guard him. This adjustment paid off as Cal quickly got back in the game, trailing 17-15 with 12:30 to go in the half after a pretty finish from Darius McNeill.
“Going into this game the key thing I think we needed to do was defend the three-point line knowing how Utah plays,” Justice Sueing said. “The first half we really put our self into a big hole. They made eleven threes I think in the first half. They just had their momentum going throughout the game. And we started to hit shots and we kinda separated throughout the second half. So, us not being able to defend the three-point line really hurt us at the end.”
With 8:05 to go in the half, Utah led 24-20. Sedrick Barefield was up to 11 points, but had cooled off a bit thanks to Cal’s defensive adjustment. Darius McNeill was up to 5 points after making his first 3-pointer of the game while Juhwan Harris-Dyson was set to go to the foul line after attacking the rim inside.
Shortly after, Utah would expand their lead 29-21 thanks to some hot perimeter shooting. The Runnin’ Utes were shooting 11-22 from the field and 7-14 from 3-point range. Cal was shooting a solid 9-18 from the field while Justice Sueing had 9 points, but their defense wasn’t getting the job done. After another 3-pointer from Parker Van Dyke, Utah expanded their lead 32-21 with 6:36 to go in the half.
Over the next few minutes, Utah would continue to make it rain from deep. Up 41-29 with 3:51 to go, Utah was shooting 10-17 from 3-point range as Timmy Allen, Riley Battin, and Both Gach all got in on the action. Cal was starting to get some threes to fall on their end (Justice Sueing with 9 points), hoping that they could give Utah a taste of their own medicine.
“I didn’t like our communication,” Wyking Jones said of his team’s defense. “We switched one through four in our man and I didn’t like our communication. I didn’t like, we weren’t coming together on the switches and so we were giving them space. We were giving them space. It’s just that simple. We were giving them space.”
“A lot of it is just a lack of communication,” Justice Sueing added. “Very little details that cause big problems. Especially with them hitting that many threes in the first half and throughout the game. Kinda picked us apart, but we gotta keep our head up. Continue to learn how to play with the game and adjust.”
Cal would do just that as they would start to get even more threes to drop. Darius McNeill was up to 8 points after getting another 3-pointer to fall and Cal as a whole was shooting 7-15 from 3-point range. As a result, Cal found themselves down 46-42 with 13.2 seconds to go in the half. After a good defensive stop, Cal was able to trail by just 4 points at halftime. Both Gach led the way for Utah with 13 points on 5-7 shooting from the field while Justice Sueing led the way for Cal with 14 points on 5-6 shooting from the field.
Utah got off to a strong start in the second half as Sedrick Barefield got up to 16 points after getting his fourth 3-pointer to fall on eight attempts. Up 55-44 with 15:58 to go, Utah had regained control of the game after a shaky end to the 1st half. Justice Sueing was in a good rhythm with 14 points on 5-9 shooting from the field, but Cal’s defense once again was letting them down.
With 11:56 to go, Cal would trail 60-51, still hanging around in the game. Sedrick Barefield was up to 19 points for Utah on 5-10 shooting from 3-point range while Justice Sueing was up to 17 points for Cal on 6-10 shooting from the field. What was really helping Utah keep in front was their 31-18 advantage on the glass.
“Just technical. It’s all technical,” Wyking Jones said of shoring up their rebounding woes. “Just doing a better job hitting people. When the shot goes up go hit some body. You watch film and there’s times when we watch film and it’s like ok, the shot went up, you guys have opportunities to hit somebody and you don’t. So, it’s real simple. Beat the guy to the ball. Do what you gotta do to get the rebound, to get position and a lot of times it just involves hitting somebody and we don’t always do that.”
“We struggled pretty well rebounding offensively and defensively,” Matt Bradley added. “They had some really big guys down low and they crashed the glass really hard. I feel like we fought really hard, it’s just they came out with a lot of fifty-fifty balls and a lot of tip rebounds and stuff which they got the advantage on that. But, I feel like we put the effort towards rebounding. They just came up on top by a big margin.”
With 7:49 to go, Utah held a 66-56 lead, doing a good job of staying in front. While rebounding was one area of concern for Cal, their lack of foul shot attempts (7) was another issue. If Cal was going to get back in the game, they were going to have to attack the rim more and get to the line, where they’ve shot a very solid 74.5% on the season.
“We didn’t look to get into the lane and look to get something at the rim,” Wyking Jones said. “If we would have been more aggressive and looked to attack their slower players. Bigger players. Bigger but slower, we would have gotten to the line a whole lot more and then obviously we go five for ten, we’re a really good free throw shooting team and we didn’t knock’em down today. But, we should have gotten to the line twenty times. We should have gotten to the line twenty times. Just because we should have been able to attack their closeouts a whole lot better than what we did.”
During the next few minutes, Cal was unable to close the gap as Utah would extend their lead 75-62 with 3:24 to go. Sedrick Barefield (21 points) and Timmy Allen (15 points) were pacing Utah to victory while Justice Sueing (20 points) and Darius McNeill (15 points) were doing their part on offense for Cal, but not doing enough on defense.
During the final minutes, Utah would close it out, winning 82-64. After making a nice run to close out the 1st half, Cal was unable to carry that momentum into the 2nd half. Utah did more than just beat Cal with their perimeter shooting (13-31 from 3-point range). They did a really good job of attacking the rim and dominating the glass (42-25 rebounding edge). When you dominate in those three areas, you’re going to win every single time.
“I saw fight and effort in the first half, yeah I did,” Wyking Jones said. “And I saw fight and effort in the second half. We just couldn’t score. And it was on us because we were settling for contested pullups. We could’ve gotten to the rim more than we did today and so that’s going to be something that we look at when we watch film. We were the quicker team and we didn’t exploit that today.”
Up next for Cal is the Gold Out game at home against Stanford. That game will tipoff on Super Bowl Sunday at 1:00 PM PST on ESPNU.
Notes: Roman Davis (back) was inactive for the game while Jacobi Gordon (Achilles) returned, but only played 3:50.
John Ricksen, this year’s recipient of the Pete Newell Career Achievement Award, was honored at halftime. This game was the 9th annual Pete Newell Classic. Read more about Ricksen on CalBears.com.
