Men's Basketball: Cal Beats the Dominican Penguins, 93-71
Trailing at halftime, the Bears scored 65 second half points to pull away
Dominican College is a small private school based in San Rafael. Approximately 1,200 undergraduate and 800 graduate students are enrolled in the schools programs that focus on liberal arts, health sciences, and business. The Division II Dominican Penguins competes as a member of the PacWest Conference and brought a 5-1 record into tonight’s game versus Cal.
The Penguins came to play.
The Bears grabbed an early 9-4 lead before their shooting disappeared. Cal went scoreless during a 4-minute stretch and Dominican connected on 50% of their shots during the same stretch. The Penguins used a 17-2 scoring run to grab a 21-11 lead with 9 minutes left in the half. The Penguins were playing with more energy than the Bears. There was an invisible shield on Cal’s basket, as many shots were halfway down the cylinder before popping back out.
A John Camden three-pointer broke the scoring drought and kicked off a 15-2 Cal scoring run as the Bears reclaimed the lead 26-23 with just over 2 minutes left in the half. Dominican responded by closing the half on an 8-2 scoring run to take a 31-28 lead into halftime.
The Penguins were playing better fundamental basketball and working harder than the Bears. Dominican recorded 10 assists on their 13 made baskets. Eight different Penguins scored points, led by Guard Nick Medeiros’ 10 points.
Cal’s shooting was abysmal in the first twenty minutes. Cal went 1-of-16 from 3-point range, and 6-of-22 from inside the arc. Cal had success driving to the basket and drawing contact. The Bears were 13-of-14 from the free throw line, with all free throws coming from perimeter players Justin Pippen, TT Carr and Chris Bell.
Cal started off hot in the second half. Justin Pippen scored 5 straight points to start the half to reclaim the lead, Cal 33-31. The Bears opened up shooting 5-for-5 from the field, including three from 3-point range, to hold a 45-40 lead at the 16-minute mark.
Cal’s hot shooting continued, with Nolan Dorsey, Justin Pippen and John Camden connecting on three-pointers. The Bears were lax on defense, giving up open shots to Dominican on multiple occasions. Nick Medeiros continued his hot shooting to keep Dominican close. Cal led 57-52 at the 12-minute mark.
Cal started asserting themself in the lane. The bigger Bears continued to drive to the basket and draw contact. Cal was shooting free throws for the last 10 minutes of the game. Dai Dai Ames, held scoreless in the first half, had 10 points in the first 10 minutes of the half.
The Bears started pulling away based on their strength advantage and ability to play through contact. Cal led 70-58 at the 8-minute mark. After taking sixteen 3-point shots in the first half, Cal attempted only 11 in the second half(connecting on 7/11). Cal continued to draw contact on their way to the basket, connecting on 14-of-16 free throws in the second half. Dominican could not keep up, and Cal pulled away for the 93-71 victory.
Justin Pippen scored a career high 24 points and added 4 steals. Cal collected 11 steals, tying their season high. TT Carr scored a career high 10 points and collected 7 rebounds. John Camden added 18 points, Dai Dai Ames scored 14, and Chris Bell scored 11 to keep their double-digit scoring streak alive.
The optimist says a win in a win, and the 65 point second half is more indicative of what this team is capable of. The pessimist points to the slow start against an inferior opponent, and has flashbacks to last year’s trend of slow starts that were frequently too much to overcome. Which will be more true come conference play?
Notes, Quotes, and Observations
Cal had only 2 assists in the first half, but rebounded with a reasonable 6 assists in the second half on 22 made baskets.
Coach Madsen on the offensive difference between halves; “You know, guys were playing more natural basketball. The aggression was there. People were looking for their teammates….
Madsen, on defense; “We didn’t have the effort. We didn’t have the energy on defense. That being said, the second half our guys really responded and came out…deflections, steals, 50/50 balls. The second half was more in character for the team we’re trying to be.”
Coach Madsen took responsibility for not getting the team adequately prepared. Cal is in the middle of dead week, the period where students are preparing for finals and finishing up and projects or assignments for the semester. Madsen acknowledged the stress the students are under, and added; ”The guys are being pulled in a million directions. That being said, I have to turn up the heat even during dead week. I thought I was doing it. I didn’t do a good enough job because we had a bad start again. And now we have some good solid days to practice.”
Rytis Petraitis did not play as he continues to recover from a lower leg injury. The expectation is he will be ready to play by the end of the month when conference play begins.
Montas Kocanas subbed in late, when the game was well under control. He scored 2 points and grabbed rebound in under 2 minutes. Lee Dort and Milos Ilic continue to play nearly all center minutes. Ilic is a solid interior presence and displays good hands, but it hasn’t clicked for him yet in the offensive flow. Tonight he scored 0 points, grabbed 4 rebounds and committed 3 fouls in 16 minutes. Cal could really use a secondary interior scorer to back up Dort and be ready to step in if Dort gets in foul trouble.
Cal returns to Haas Pavilion this Saturday, hosting the Northwestern State Demons at 2pm.
TT Carr had a bit of a breakout performance. That put back was sick. And Pippen is becoming an all around beast (Can you imagine this guy in a year or two if he keeps progressing?).
Team survives trap game during dead week against a better than advertised Dominican team (that has mostly been blowing out its peers).
This is a really good Cal team that wills itself to victory. I worry about some of the ACC teams with elite size, but I think this team will win at least 20 games and will be tournament bound. Would be nice to get one more person to emerge off the bench.
Can we be a 20 win team this year? Seems possible.