Cal men’s basketball falls 66-51 at Washington State
A miserable second half dooms the Bears
If you were a Cal fan watching the first 20 minutes of Wednesday night’s game in Pullman, you might have felt a twinge of optimism. DeJuan Clayton beat the halftime buzzer with a straightaway three that made the score 31-30 in favor of Washington State. The Bears were coming off Friday’s convincing 92-70 win over Stanford after ending 2022 by edging Colorado 80-76. They hung with the Cougars in the first half despite WSU’s recent hot play. The Cougs had beaten Arizona 74-61 in Tucson on Saturday and began the new year by defeating USC by ten. Could the Bears simply be hitting their stride in recent games after losing their first twelve games of the campaign? Well, the second half did little to encourage that narrative as the Cougars seized a 66-51 win.
Things began with Kuany Kuany showing nice touch, angling his way into the paint for a jumper and then hitting from downtown to give Cal a 5-0 lead. A Marsalis Roberson triple would make it 10-4 Bears just over four minutes in. For the home team, Kymany Hoinsou scored four early points including a dunk resulting from a Jabe Mullins pass. The Cougars also got predictable contributions from Mouhamed Gueye, who ended the game with 14 points while drawing six fouls against Cal players.
Justin Powell gave the Cougars a 14-12 lead from behind the arc, but the Bears would remain close in the first stanza thanks in part to a balanced attack. It didn’t hurt that Clayton banked in a three to cut the Cal deficit to only two with 6:30 remaining.
Roberson led Cal with 11 points in only 17 minutes off the bench, while Obinna Anyanwu scored seven. Washington State likes to shoot from deep but went just 3-for-10 from long range in the first half while making 40 percent of field goal attempts. However, It all went awry very quickly after halftime. Hoinsou and Gueye made easy baskets before DJ Rodman’s trey made it an eight-point lead with 17:46 to play. Incidentally, Rodman is known for drawing charges and got a laughable call against Kuany with about seven minutes left to go.
The outcome was certainly not in doubt at that point. Less than five minutes into the second half, Washington State led 43-30 following an Andrej Jakimovski layup and 46-32 after Rodman connected from downtown again. Adrame Diongue added insult to injury with an awkward alley-oop style layup and drew a foul in the process. That made it 50-35 Cougars with 12:44 remaining.
Dylan Darling’s triple stretched the lead to 18 with 10:36 to go. WSU led by as many as 23 and outscored the Bears 12-0 during one particularly ugly stretch. You get the idea. Cal shot only 8-for-28 from the field in the half and lost by 15 despite a late 8-0 run. Wrenn Robinson’s late cameo resulted in a three-point play and his first points since the Bears won on December 21 against Texas-Arlington. Meanwhile, WSU football player Jack Wilson got into the game after the student section kept chanting his name during garbage time.
Kuany ended up fouling out with 4:18 left, with his seven points matching Grant Newell for most by a Cal starter. Clayton added six points as did Lars Thiemann who paced the Bears with seven boards. Unfortunately, Joel Brown was held scoreless despite a total of three assists. Monty Bowser ended with four points and two rebounds in 22 minutes. Newell shot only 3-for-12 from the floor despite swishing this one from the corner.
The win over Stanford was shocking enough to almost make you forget the endless parade of losses to non-conference teams. The second half at Beasley Coliseum was a reminder that we’re likely to see the end of the Mark Fox era within the next couple of months. I almost laughed out loud when the ESPNU announcers lamented the lack of a star player on the Cal roster. The closest thing the Bears have to offer in that department is the injured Devin Askew, and even he is more of a volume shooter than dominant force.
Fox can hope that Clayton goes off for another 26 points another time this season, but this team has to play some semblance of defense to have a shot. The Cougars answered with 52 percent shooting from the field, 54 percent from behind the arc, and a 22-13 rebounding edge in the final 20 minutes. That was never going to be enough for the Bears to collect their first road victory of the season. They fell to 3-14 while Washington State improves to 8-10 this season. Saturday will bring a matchup with 9-8 Washington, although the Huskies are just 1-5 in conference play.
Thanks, Alex, coming out of the pen!! Well done!
So, not much is gained by continuing to bash Fox. He’s still here, he’s still inadequate, and really there’s no reason to beat the drum on the same old list of deficiencies that will hopefully lead to his firing come March. I do think it’s interesting to compare Fox/Cal and Kyle Smith/Wazzu, as Smith left USF for the Palouse right before Knowlton’s search firm hired Fox. Wazzu may be 8-10 this year, but it has a guy in Gueye that has played 4 years of organized basketball and will likely play in the League, and play an exciting brand of basketball. It’s night and day…Kyle Smith was in Cal’s backyard - Knowlton not at least targeting him for an interview is so on brand.