Insta-Reaction: Cal Men's Basketball Bounce Back, Defeat Colorado 71-62
writeforcalifornia.com
Junior Matt Bradley scored a career-high and game-high 29 points, as the California Golden Bears (8-15, 3-13 Pac-12) defeated the Colorado Buffaloes (16-6, 10-5 Pac-12), 71-62.
With Saturday night's victory, California breaks its seven-game losing streak, second only to the Washington Huskies' eight-game string of losses from Dec. 12, 2020, to Jan. 16, 2021, in the Pac-12 Conference.
California competed hard, but the win did not come easily. The match featured 12 lead changes and six tied scores, but the Golden Bears kept a lead for most of the second half to the home team's credit.
With 17:29 remaining in the second half, Andre Kelly scored a jumper in the paint to tie the game at 38-all, and the Golden Bears didn't look back since, maintaining their lead the rest of the evening.
California and Colorado both ended the game with an identical 40% shooting record.
As Golden Bears fans have come to expect, the difference came from California's willingness to try shots from downtown. The home team had three players — Bradley, Ryan Betley and Jalen Celestine — attempt five or more three-point shots. Betley attempted seven shots from beyond the arc but connected only on one. In all, California successfully drained seven out of 22 tries (31.8%) compared to the Buffaloes, who made only three out of 15 shots (20%).
Got over my threshold of 66 points, usually when we get there on merit we win (i.e not like final second garbage points vs USC and Furd game 2), and got some help from guys like Celestine which was nice to see. Cal is a good home team under Fox, only really being not competitive in 2 total games over the last 2 seasons. Here's hoping to a good finish to the season with some momentum into the P12 tourney like last year where I think we can do damage.
My favorite thing about this game was seeing the incredible sense of espirit de corps between the players and coaches. If you watched closely, you would see Bradley slapping Fox on the chest in the way of saying "Thanks Coach" or " I got this for you Coach". Seeing a team try that hard, and feel together with their coaches, is really a beautiful thing. It's not enough by itself, but it bodes well for the future. Go Bears.
Just watched the last five minutes. We looked totally different than most of the past few games. Like really good. Difference must be attributable to freshman Celestine (need to look up his high school ranking before he came to Cal) and Foreman played well. Bradley was very, very good. Maybe we DO have enough good players this year. The team is like a yo yo.
In other news, on a highlight show tonight I just saw Suing score two buckets for Ohio State. I think Vanover is playing well for Arkansas. Scored 12 the other night against Kentucky (which is lousy this season though even though they have sky high talent). Both OSU and Arkansa are pretty much locks to go dancing this season. BTW, watched a bit of Vanover play. Still hits the the three. And still doesn't jump much but blocks shots and hold onto the ball when he rebounds.
Imagine if we had Suing and Vanover this season. :Probably would be fighting for the conference title.
Got over my threshold of 66 points, usually when we get there on merit we win (i.e not like final second garbage points vs USC and Furd game 2), and got some help from guys like Celestine which was nice to see. Cal is a good home team under Fox, only really being not competitive in 2 total games over the last 2 seasons. Here's hoping to a good finish to the season with some momentum into the P12 tourney like last year where I think we can do damage.
My favorite thing about this game was seeing the incredible sense of espirit de corps between the players and coaches. If you watched closely, you would see Bradley slapping Fox on the chest in the way of saying "Thanks Coach" or " I got this for you Coach". Seeing a team try that hard, and feel together with their coaches, is really a beautiful thing. It's not enough by itself, but it bodes well for the future. Go Bears.
Just watched the last five minutes. We looked totally different than most of the past few games. Like really good. Difference must be attributable to freshman Celestine (need to look up his high school ranking before he came to Cal) and Foreman played well. Bradley was very, very good. Maybe we DO have enough good players this year. The team is like a yo yo.
In other news, on a highlight show tonight I just saw Suing score two buckets for Ohio State. I think Vanover is playing well for Arkansas. Scored 12 the other night against Kentucky (which is lousy this season though even though they have sky high talent). Both OSU and Arkansa are pretty much locks to go dancing this season. BTW, watched a bit of Vanover play. Still hits the the three. And still doesn't jump much but blocks shots and hold onto the ball when he rebounds.
Imagine if we had Suing and Vanover this season. :Probably would be fighting for the conference title.