The California Golden Bears (7-8, 2-6 Pac-12) bounced back after a blistering loss by defeating the Utah Utes (5-6, 2-5 Pac-12), 72-63, Saturday night in Salt Lake City.
The Golden Bears' victory against the Utes is the first away win this season.
The win was hard-fought. At one point, California trailed Utah by 15 points, but a Ute scoring drought in the last two minutes and six seconds of the game iced any comeback hopes.
The Golden Bears shot 58.6% in the second half, connecting on 17 out of 29 field-goal attempts, limiting the Utes to a pedestrian 32%.
Senior Grant Anticevich led the Golden Bears with 14 points and seven rebounds. He made two out of four three-point attempts.
Makale Foreman and Andre Kelly also scored double digits, 12 and 11 points, respectively.
With the win, California is 10th place in the Pac-12 Conference standings, behind Utah, and only ahead of the Arizona State Sun Devils and the Washington Huskies. The Golden Bears defeated the latter team last week for its first conference victory.
Incidentally, Cal is 4-2 in games when Bradley didn't touch the floor. This is not in any way a knock on Bradley, who is truly great and a total team player. But the dynamic is different when he's not around. I don't know if it's a "let's win one for the Gipper" sort of sentiment, or more like "I'd better step it up, we don't have our guy tonight". In either case, they don't play the same as when available.
I think all of our shortcomings were on full display in this game, especially in the first half, but without changing much, we happened to make contested shots in the 2nd half while Utah went cold, missing a ton of open looks. Good sign of hope for the rest of the season, though, was that Anticevich looks like he regained his pre-appendectomy form in the 2nd half, hitting his open jumpers & fall-aways, looking very solid and consistent. Cal must have stayed in the mountains between the CU and this game, helping to acclimate to the altitude. Maybe they went to the Breckenridge Lodge (Alt 10k ft) so they could descend 6k ft to play at Utah. Hyder was better tonight, although still had a few reckless drives with no plan. Joel Brown has all of the talent in the world, but he's like a golfer with the yips - something going on in his brain that prevents him from performing at his obvious skill level. Do we have a staff psychologist in the athletic department?
Well we will take it, right? Beating even a bad Pac12 team on the road, in the mountains, is a feat. The guys were sure having fun on the court and on the sideline. If you remember in the Wyking Jones days, the players were not showing signs of being light and happy. Of course we care about the results on the court, and winning makes you happy, but I notice the Cal bench seems genuinely supportive even during losses. I take this as a good sign of team and coach chemistry. The results are going to be what they are with this group of players. Maybe if Fox works magic we are a middling team. We need more talented players, and soon. But for now, I'll take a team that plays hard, has fun, and pulls out a win here and there against teams they should.
Incidentally, Cal is 4-2 in games when Bradley didn't touch the floor. This is not in any way a knock on Bradley, who is truly great and a total team player. But the dynamic is different when he's not around. I don't know if it's a "let's win one for the Gipper" sort of sentiment, or more like "I'd better step it up, we don't have our guy tonight". In either case, they don't play the same as when available.
I think all of our shortcomings were on full display in this game, especially in the first half, but without changing much, we happened to make contested shots in the 2nd half while Utah went cold, missing a ton of open looks. Good sign of hope for the rest of the season, though, was that Anticevich looks like he regained his pre-appendectomy form in the 2nd half, hitting his open jumpers & fall-aways, looking very solid and consistent. Cal must have stayed in the mountains between the CU and this game, helping to acclimate to the altitude. Maybe they went to the Breckenridge Lodge (Alt 10k ft) so they could descend 6k ft to play at Utah. Hyder was better tonight, although still had a few reckless drives with no plan. Joel Brown has all of the talent in the world, but he's like a golfer with the yips - something going on in his brain that prevents him from performing at his obvious skill level. Do we have a staff psychologist in the athletic department?
Well we will take it, right? Beating even a bad Pac12 team on the road, in the mountains, is a feat. The guys were sure having fun on the court and on the sideline. If you remember in the Wyking Jones days, the players were not showing signs of being light and happy. Of course we care about the results on the court, and winning makes you happy, but I notice the Cal bench seems genuinely supportive even during losses. I take this as a good sign of team and coach chemistry. The results are going to be what they are with this group of players. Maybe if Fox works magic we are a middling team. We need more talented players, and soon. But for now, I'll take a team that plays hard, has fun, and pulls out a win here and there against teams they should.
Great win! After the first half, I sure was wrong about assuming we were going to lose, glad I stuck with it.
I checked in on ESPNU just before I went to bed. They were down 17-5 about midpoint of the first half. Saw no reason to stay up late.
Awesome !
Talk about a big second half!