On Wednesday night, Cal men’s basketball fell to the Oregon Ducks by a final score of 73-62. Oregon head coach Dana Altman picked up his 100th career Pac-12 win. Oregon junior guard Payton Pritchard led the way for the Ducks with 20 points and 10 rebounds on 5-9 shooting from 3-point range while Cal sophomore forward Justice Sueing was the top performer for the Golden Bears with 17 points and 5 rebounds on 9-10 shooting from the foul line. Oregon improves to 14-9 overall and 5-5 in the Pac-12 while Cal falls to 5-17 overall and 0-10 in the Pac-12.
Oregon got out to an 11-8 lead with 14:25 to go in the 1st half. Darius McNeill was off to a solid start for Cal with 5 points. The issue for Cal was their defense, something that has been a problem all year. Oregon was shooting 4-8 from the field and 3-6 from 3-point range, getting whatever they wanted on offense.
Despite the poor defense, Cal continued to hang around, trailing 13-10 with 11:52 to go in the half after Paris Austin made a nice bucket inside plus the foul. That bucket from Austin sparked a 7-0 run for the Golden Bears to put them up 15-13 before Payton Pritchard ended the run with a 3-pointer to give the Ducks a 16-15 lead with 7:28 to go in the half. Pritchard was up to 6 points while Justice Sueing also had 6 points.
One key area where Cal was beating Oregon was transition points (11-0). During one of the timeouts, Wyking Jones told his players to really take advantage of Oregon’s turnovers and laziness to get back on defense. Judging by the stats, it’s clear that Jones’ players were taking his message to heart.
Cal’s 1st half success would soon come to a screeching halt as Oregon opened up a 17-2 run that lasted 4 minutes and 27 seconds. As a result, Oregon would go into halftime up 32-21. Payton Pritchard led the way for Oregon at the half with 9 points and 7 rebounds on 3-6 shooting from 3-point range while Justice Sueing was the one pacing Cal with 8 points and 3 rebounds.
During that 17-2 run, Cal’s offense went icy cold after starting the half so strong. Shooting just 8-27 from the field and 1-11 from 3-point range at the half, Cal needed to regroup. Part of the problem for Cal was just finishing shots inside. It wasn’t necessarily a case of guys playing hero ball. It was much more a case of guys getting looks inside and not able to capitalize. As Cal has painfully learned over the course of this season, the scoreboard doesn’t reward effort. It’s about getting results and Cal wasn’t getting it done during this stretch.
Rather than letting Oregon walk all over them in the 2nd half, Cal continued to battle hard, trailing 39-28 with 15:59 to go. Payton Pritchard (11 points) and Louis King (10 points) were in double figures for Oregon while Justice Sueing (13 points) was leading all scorers. Juhwan Harris-Dyson had a pretty find to Connor Vanover for the slam, indicative of a team that was still fighting and willing to work together. Cal’s hard work was rewarded with a 14-4 run that would cut Oregon’s lead down to just 6 points (41-35) after Vanover hit a 3-pointer.
Pritchard and King soon struck back to give Oregon a 47-37 lead with 11:55 to go. King got a pretty floater to fall while Pritchard got a steal and layup in transition. Once again, Cal would continue to not go away. Grant Anticevich hit a 3-pointer to once again shave Oregon’s lead to single digits (51-42) with 8:12 to go. It was just a matter of putting together some stops and making up for the scoring drought they had in the 1st half. Cal wasn’t able to get those stops down the stretch as Ehab Amin hit a 3-pointer to put Oregon up 54-42 with 6:56 to go followed by another triple by Payton Pritchard to go up 63-49 with 4:26 to go.
Cal was able to get Oregon’s lead down to single digits once more after Matt Bradley’s second 3-pointer, but with 1:53 to go, they didn’t have enough time to come back from a 67-58 hole. Oregon walked out with a 73-62 win, keeping themselves in the mix for a top four seed in the Pac-12 tournament. As for Cal, they suffered their 10th loss of conference play, continuing to ensure a 12th seed in the Pac-12 tournament.
As disappointing as these losses are for Cal, one thing they should be credited for is coming to compete. It would be easy for them to give up and not want to put up a fight, but instead they keep battling and seem to be pretty united as a group. Lots of losing teams bicker and fight, but this group seems to be in as good of spirits as you can expect a team like them to be in.
Cal’s next opportunity to get that first Pac-12 win will be on Saturday, February 9th when they face the Oregon State Beavers in Corvallis. That game will tipoff at 2:30 PM PST on Pac-12 Networks.
