Cal Men's Basketball Rallies and Eventually Demolishes Stanford at Maples Pavilion
Down by as many as 16, Cal stormed back to get Mark Madsen's first win as HC at Stanford
Cal was on the struggle bus early at Stanford, leaning into the “its a 40 minute game” mantra. Down by as many as 16 in the first half, a thunderous TT Carr and one with a minute left in the first stanza gave Cal a lead they would never relinquish en route to a 78-66 win in Palo Alto.
After a slow back and forth to begin the game, Cal was put on the back foot behind a 16-2 run from Stanford. The Cardinal had their biggest lead at 29-13 before the game of runs took another turn. Justin Pippen mentioned postgame that Cal eventually loosened up on the eventual 25-5 run, and that they were playing too stiff in order to get into any meaningful offensive sets. Mark Madsen echoed similar sentiments, with that “settle down” message clicking as the first half came to a close.
Lead by standout defense plus a good stretch of play from Pippen and John Camden, the Bears miraculously took a 38-34 lead into the locker room.
Both Cal and Stanford’s leading scorers, Dai Dai Ames and Ebuka Okorie were a combined 0/12 from the field at the break. All the punches Stanford threw early now weren’t connecting and their main source of offense was having a rough go.
Once the second half got underway, Ames welcomed himself to the party and then some.
The veteran scored the first seven points to start the half for Cal, giving the Bears its biggest lead to that point at nine. Cal got the lead up to 56-43 with 13 minutes remaining and was on the verge of giving the Cardinal a game ending run in their own building, but couldn’t take advantage of transition opportunities to put them away.
Jeremy Dent-Smith started to heat up for Stanford and as Cal gave away some bad turnovers, the Cardinal eventually reeled in the Bears with 6:30 remaining, all tied up at 60. Within that shuffle, Cal C Lee Dort went down with a left leg injury and did not return to the game after an errant lob attempt. Dort came back to the bench with ice on his left thigh/quad area.
The Bears would have to dig deep as Stanford threw a lot of zone defense at them. Camden and Pippen happily obliged in meeting the task. Camden in particular did a good job sitting in the middle of the zone and moving without the ball, doing what was necessary to ultimately get flow into the half court offense.
Defensively, Cal hunkered down despite giving some offensive rebounds. They held the freshman phenom Okorie to 1/16 (!!!) from the field. Okorie did get to the line to the tune of being 12/14 from the FT line but Cal more than did the job on him, a big key that went the Bears way as Stanford operated without second leading scorer Chisom Okpara (who is out for the season). Cal would go on to hold Stanford to 27% shooting from the floor by the time the final horn sounded.
Pippen, Camden and Chris Bell eventually brought the Bears home, as Camden hit a dagger three with less than two minutes left to bring the Cal fans to their feet and cap off his 25 point, 10 rebound double double. Bell put the exclamation point on the game with a hellacious put back dunk to give the Bears its first win inside of Maples Pavilion since March of 2019.
“I’m happy for our team and players. It’s nice when you see the guys have that adversity in the first half and fight back and get a win. I remember Mike Montgomery and the Rhode Island game. We were down 14 late….Mike came in the huddle and had so much belief. My thought was keep battling, it’s been a lesson for me for life.” - Cal HC Mark Madsen postgame
Just made an account to celebrate this! Madsen has resurrected cal bball in 3 years. Remarkable, proud, and now ambitious on what can happen next
Cal up to 54 in NET rankings, FWIW.
For their bubble resume, Wed at FSU is, and honestly always has been if they’re gonna dance, MUST win. Gotta beat a 1-6 ACC bottom dweller, even on the road.
Dort’s injury is worrisome, unfortunately.