On Thursday, Cal men’s basketball fell to Colorado by a final score of 68-59. Justice Sueing (13 points) and Paris Austin (13 points) were the top performers for Cal while Lucas Siewert (18 points) and Tyler Bey (17 points) were the ones to lead Colorado. Colorado improves to 11-7 overall and 2-4 in the Pac-12 while Cal falls to 5-14 overall and 0-7 in the Pac-12.
“Down 18 with 18:05 to go in the second half and then we fight back and get the lead with four or five minutes to go in the second half, I was obviously very happy with the fight and the toughness that our guys showed in that stretch,” Cal head coach Wyking Jones said after the game. “There was times when I had a small lineup and I had Justice Sueing at the five and Juhwan Harris Dyson at the four along with the guards. It just showed a tremendous amount of fight and toughness that I’ve been waiting to see for a long time, so that was the bright spot for me. To see our guys battle back and get stops…If we don’t go in at half down 11, I think it’s a different game.
“We come out in the second half and we give them a five point play. But, it all comes down to being consistent, giving that effort, giving that same fight for 40 minutes and that’s what I’ve been preaching to our guys the last month. Putting together 40 solid minutes of basketball.”
Colorado got up to a 13-10 lead with 14:38 to go in the 1st half. Shane Gatling was hot for Colorado early, scoring 9 of those 13 points on 3-4 shooting from 3-point range. Justice Sueing also got going for Cal, scoring 6 points on 3-3 shooting from the field. While Cal’s offense was off to a solid start, their perimeter defense was giving them trouble.
During the next couple of minutes, not a lot of scoring went on. Tyler Bey made a pair of free throws for Colorado while Juhwan Harris-Dyson went 1-2 at the foul line for Cal. Up 15-11 with 11:57 to go in the half, Colorado was off to a solid start, shooting 4-9 from the field, but Cal was still hanging tough, doing a good job of attacking the rim and getting to the foul line. The only wrinkle for Cal in that strategy was their 3-6 shooting from the foul line. If they were going to win this game, they were going to have to do a better job of making Colorado pay for fouling them inside.
Colorado would continue to slowly grow their lead, going up 21-13 with 7:53 to go in the half. While they were cooling off from 3-point range a bit, the Buffaloes were doing a nice job of finding holes in Cal’s zone, giving them wide open looks inside the 3-point line. Lucas Siewert was doing a good job in this department with 6 points on 2-4 shooting from the field.
“It’s tough when you’re playing against a five man that can shoot the ball the way Siewert can,” Wyking Jones said. “So, typically they throw it to the high post. You have some time to kinda close out and kinda see where they’re going with it. Is he gonna look to score, is he gonna look to kick out? But he’s so good at the high post, knocking down that 15 footer and even being able to step out and hit threes and so, when they got the ball into him, it’s tough because you gotta get your five man up to the high post right away, but at the same time if they have Bey on the baseline, we have to be ready for crackdowns, but then at the same time, you gotta be ready for kick outs and so when you have a five man that is that talented and that much of a threat from all those areas, it’s tough.”
Up 28-17 with 3:48 to go, Colorado’s lead grew even more. While their zone defense wasn’t having the desired effects, it was really Cal’s offense that was the issue. Cal was shooting 6-18 (33.3%) from the field, 0-4 from 3-point range, and 5-9 from the foul line. Aside from Justice Sueing, who had 10 points on 4-6 shooting from the field, no one else for Cal was in any sort of rhythm. A lot of that had to do with the way Cal’s offense was leading guys into iso situations, forcing them to take difficult shots.
“We had a spell in the first half where we just could not score. Just couldn’t get one,” Wyking Jones admitted. “And I told our guys, I said fellas we’re settling for shots as opposed to forcing the issue and getting the shot that we want. Getting in the lane, jump stopping two feet, going up strong. We’re shooting a lot of floaters, we’re shooting a lot of fadeaways. Those aren’t the shots that we want. Those are the shots that they want us to take.”
Towards the end of the half, Paris Austin would get going a bit, knocking down a pair of difficult jumpers to give him 8 points on 4-6 shooting from the field. Still, even with his burst at the end, Cal found themselves down 34-23 at halftime. The problem for Cal was their offense was really stagnant, shooting just 9-23 (39.1%) from the field, 0-5 from 3-point range, and 5-9 from the foul line. On top of that, Colorado, while shooting just 3-12 (25.0%) from 3-point range, was getting solid looks, shooting 13-27 (48.1%) from the field and 5-7 from the foul line.
Colorado opened up the 2nd half on a 7-0 run thanks to 5 quick points from Lucas Siewert, who was up to 13 points on 5-8 shooting from the field. With a 41-23 lead and 17:59 to go in the game, Wyking Jones called a quick timeout, looking to get his guys back on track.
Jones’ timeout appeared to work as Cal started to slowly chip away at Colorado’s lead, bringing more energy and intensity on defense. Things started to really look better for Cal after Andre Kelly got a pretty bucket to fall inside followed up by a 3-pointer from Darius McNeill, cutting Colorado’s lead to single digits (48-39) with 13:22 to go.
“I just told them, I said we have to fight. We have to show some pride,” Jones said of what he told his team during that timeout. “We have to be men out there. I basically just challenged their manhood. I said hey, are we gonna fold or are we gonna respond to the challenge that’s in front of us? They started rallying and encouraging each other within that time out and it was good to see, and they responded.”
“He got on us a bit, but it helped us,” Paris Austin said. “Everything that he said in that moment, it fired us up and we just kept chipping away.”
During the next couple of minutes, Cal would continue to ratchet up the defensive intensity. Juhwan Harris-Dyson got a pretty block inside that led to a transition bucket and Darius McNeill knocked down another 3-pointer to shave Colorado’s lead to just 8 points (52-44) with 10:18 to go.
Cal would continue to battle over the next couple of minutes, going on a 9-0 that run involved a pretty layup in transition from Matt Bradley and a 3-point play from Juhwan Harris-Dyson. Down 52-50 with 8:00 to go, Cal was right back in the game.
After cutting Colorado’s lead down to two points, Cal would briefly take the lead after a pair of free throws from Matt Bradley. Tyler Bey struck back for Colorado with a second chance layup inside and then Lucas Siewert would extend Colorado’s lead to four points after knocking down a 3-pointer.
Rather than letting Colorado run away with the win, Cal was able to cut Colorado’s lead back down to two points. Up 60-58 with 3:41 to go, Colorado was going to have to earn the victory. Unfortunately for Cal, that was the closest they were going to get in the final moments. McKinley Wright IV hit a dagger 3-pointer with 29.7 to go, putting Colorado up 66-59. From there, Colorado would walk out with a 68-59 win after Lucas Siewert knocked down a pair of free throws.
“In the final four minutes, I saw some guys that had to give everything they had and got tired,” Wyking Jones said. “They got tired. We just kinda ran out of gas after fighting back. Down 18, I mean that’s a lot of points. I saw us, Paris has a layup at the rim, we miss; Matt dribbles one off his foot. I think those are just fatigue plays because they battled so hard to get back.”
For Cal, this game is bittersweet. What’s bitter is the fact that they lost the game and got down by 18 points. When you get down by that much, you cannot expect to win the game. What’s sweet is that they didn’t throw in the towel. They battled hard and were rewarded for it by taking the lead late in the game. The message of needing to put two good halves of basketball together rang true in this game. Cal played one of half of basketball really well, but another half not so well, resulting in the loss.
“Discouraged, yeah, because the losses have piled up, but at the same time encouraged that we were able to, the guys could have very easily thrown in the towel and they didn’t,” Wyking Jones said. “So, to see that fight and that effort and to know that we have it in us, is very encouraging for me.”
“I thought we did a really good job fighting back,” Paris Austin added. “I felt like we grew this game as far as previous games, sometimes we may put our heads down. But this game we continued to fight, and we just came up short.”
Up next for Cal is a home game on Saturday against the Utah Utes. That game will tipoff at 5:00 PM PST on ESPNU.
