Men's Basketball: Cal Tops Northwestern State in Hard Fought Battle, 79-70
Cal pulls away in last four minutes to earn the victory
Today’s matchup against Southland Conference member Northwestern State appeared to be a mismatch coming into the game. The Demons entered the game with a 2-7 record and a #299 Kenpom ranking. After sluggish starts recently against Dominican and Pacific, could the Bears dominate an on-paper inferior opponent across 40 minutes?
TT Carr earned the start, as Justin Pippen sat today’s game out. John Camden and Carr each scored 5 early points to get the Bears going. Northwestern State shot the ball well early on, connecting on 8-of-15 early shots. Cal committed 4 turnovers in the first 10 minutes, and Chris Bell and Dai Dai Ames started a combined 2-of-9 shooting. Cal led for the first 10 minutes of the game before the Demons were able to pull ahead. Northwestern State held a 22-18 lead at the 8-minute timeout of the first half.
Cal was not playing bad, but they weren’t cohesive on either end. the Bears were a step slow on the defensive close-out, allowing open shot opportunities for the Demons. Northwestern State, like Dominican on Tuesday, was executing their offense well and limiting mistakes. The Demons maintained a 4-point lead until 1:30 left in the half. Nolan Dorsey connected on a corner 3-pointer, then forced a Demons turnover in the backcourt to give Cal the ball back. John Camden connected on a 3-pointer to reclaim the lead for Cal, 34-32 with one minute left. Northwestern State’s Justin Redmond connected on a 3-point basket with seven seconds left to give the Demons a 37-35 lead. Dai Dai Ames went the length of the court to hit a challenging layup as time expired, tying the game at 37-37 at the half.
TT Carr scored 10 first half points to lead the Bears. Guard Izzy Miles scored 12 point to power the Demons. The team statistics were nearly identical for the first twenty minutes of the game.
TT Carr started off the second half with a driving layup. The teams traded baskets until TT Carr collected a steal at midcourt and threaded the needle on a long pass to Dai Dai Ames for the reverse layup to give Cal the lead, 48-46. The Demon’s Izzy Miles continued his hot shooting, connecting on a 3-pointer as the Demons regained the lead 51-48 at the 16-minute timeout.
Cal could not gain control of the game. Dai Dai Ames connected on a 3-pointer to tie 51-51. Cal continued to turn the ball over too frequently, leading to 10 points for the Demons through the first 8 minutes of the half. At the 12-minute timeout, the Demons led 58-53.
John Camden and Dai Dai Ames connected on 3-pointers, to give Cal the 59-58 lead. Haas Pavilion got loud, and it felt like Cal could finally seize the initiative. The Demons would not back down, fighting for interior space on a tough basket from Forward Willie Williams. At the 8-minute timeout, the game was tied 62-62.
After a Demons 3-pointer, Cal went on a 6-0 run which included dunks from Lee Dort and John Camden to to grab some momentum and lead lead, 68-65 at the 4-minute timeout.
Cal ran the scoring streak to 12-0 on free throws from TT Carr and Lee Dort, and a nice backdoor cut from Nolan Dorsey as Cal extended the lead to 74-65 with ninety seconds remaining. The Demons could not recover, as Cal closed out the 79-70 win.
TT Carr finished with 14 points, 7 assists and 4 rebounds in solid all-around game. John Camden scored 16 points in the second half on efficient 5-of-7 shooting. Camden led all scorers with 25 points. Dai Dai Ames also turned it on in the second half with 13 points, on his way to 20 points for the game. Lee Dort collected a career high 13 rebounds, 9 points, 3 assists, 3 blocks and 2 steals to fill up the box score.
Cal switched to primarily zone defense for the last 10 minute of the game, as the man defense was not crisp and allowing too many uncontested shots. Coach Madsen indicated; ”We were a step slow on a couple of our man actions. We were, just it wasn’t they weren’t horrible breakdowns, just a step slow, a step late chasing a shooter.”
For the slow start overall , Coach Madsen attributed to a lack of urgency; ”Sense of urgency is huge. You know, I thought in the second half we we came out with at times a tremendous sense of urgency in terms of communication, in terms of being there to help a teammate out and we have to do that for 40 minutes. And as we can improve and build into that, our defense will get even better.”
So, Cal was once again not dominant in a game that should have been one-sided. Today’s game is the fourth in a six game homestand in which Cal is playing as heavy favorites against lower tier competition. In all games, Cal has not dominated the complete game. All games have been competitive across at least the first 30 minutes, before Cal is able to find a way to pull away at the end. In years past, Cal has lost to teams like Pacific (Madsen year 1) and Cornell (last year). This year, Cal is 10-1 and has not had a “what was that??” loss on their record. When asked about the record and where the program is right now, Coach Madsen responded; “It’s a good starting point…There were some things that happened in the first half that we just got away from our process and our principles. Um so we have to get back to that, you know, the building blocks, laying bricks, be being a bricklayer every day. But there’s so much more work to do. You can’t be complacent with this type of start.“
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
Coach Madsen was vague when asked abut Justin Pippen’s status; ”So right now Justin’s going through a process with our trainer and our medical people. And as we get updates we’ll share those. I would expect those in the short to medium term.” Let’s hope he’s available for the conference opener against Louisville on December 30th.
Cal had at least 3 baskets today on nicely designed back-door cuts from the corner, with the big man Dort or Ilic playing high and connecting on a nice bounce pass to the cutting wing player. This was a staple play in year one of Madsen’s tenure, with Fardaws Aimaq and Keonte Kennedy running it successfully. While last year’s offensive strategy minimized it, it’s nice to see it make a return. It’s aesthetically pleasing basketball.
Lee Dort and Milos Ilic shared the court for about 3 minutes in the first half, the first time Cal has ran a multiple big-man lineup this season. It did not produce any notable plays or game moments.
Here’s the great news…..if this had been a team coached by MM’s predecessor they would be 1-10, maybe 2-9 right now
I’m hoping that the Bears go to a tighter rotation based on what’s learned now about player capabilities once the conference schedule begins.