Men's Basketball: Cal's Explosive First Half Fuels the Upset Over #14 North Carolina, 84-78

Cal withstands late UNC rally to secure the win

Cal’s opening stretch of six ACC Conference games has featured four ranked opponents. Cal has been an underdog in five of their six games. According to Vegas, 1-4 in conference play is exactly where we should be. For me, I wanted to be 2-3 at worst coming into today’s game. While today’s game was not even remotely close to ‘must win’ status, the battle against 14th-ranked North Carolina was the biggest chance Cal has in the regular season to put a nationally noteworthy win on their resume.

Photo Credit: Rob Hwang

Cal raced out to a 7-0 lead behind Lee Dort’s strong early play. Dort scored on a layup, an alley-oop slam, and collected three rebounds in the game’s first two minutes. The Tarheels responded in kind, with Center Henri Veesaar scoring two buckets at point blank range. Cal led 12-10 at the 16-minute timeout.

Cal kept being aggressive on offense and pushed their lead to 26-13 at the 11-minute mark. The Bears had five assists on nine made baskets. During this stretch, Milos Ilic connected on his first three point basket of the year, as five different Bears had five points apiece.

UNC switched to a 2—3 zone defense in an attempt to slow down the Bears. Against Duke on Wednesday, John Camden drew the primary defensive assignment on Cameron Boozer, Duke’s best player. Post game, it was revealed that the Tar Heels don’t use a zone, signaling the way they were getting roasted on defense. Camden was tasked with guarding UNC phenom F Caleb Wilson( 20 points per game, 11 rebounds). When Cal double-teamed Wilson, UNC effectively rotated the ball to the open player for the high percentage shot opportunity. The Tar Heels were an early 50% shooting overall, including 4-of-7 from outside. Cal maintained a 31-26 lead at the 6-minute mark.

UNC stayed in the zone, but allowed too much space to outside shooters. UNC Coach Hubert Davis was irate at his team after Justin Pippen and John Camden made uncontested 3-point shots. The Bears were 10-of-16 from outside in the first half, and 9-of-15 from inside the arc. Cal’s lead was as large 19 points as the Bears entered halftime with a 54-37 lead.

The first half was Cal’s best offensive 20 minutes of the season so far. While UNC’s defense was lackluster, Cal’s offensive execution was excellent. Cal’s screening action provided plenty of good shot opportunities. The Bears collected 14 assists on 19 made baskets, and turned the ball over only 5 times. John Camden lead Cal with 16 points, with Justin Pippen scoring 11 points and Dai Dai Ames 10 points. For the Tar Heels the shots that were falling early on stopped going in, as they missed on their last four shot attempts from outside. Caleb Wilson was contained, but still led UNC with 8 total points. Of note, Wilson had zero rebounds as Cal won the overall rebounding battle 18 to 14.

Lee Dort collected his third foul one minute into the second half. Milos Ilic collected his third foul two minutes later. Coach Madsen kept Ilic in the game. Cal’s interior defense was lacking as Ilic avoided additional fouls. Caleb Wilson took advantage with several highlight plays at the rim. Cal’s lead was as large as twenty before UNC was able to reduce it by five. Cal led 67-52 at the 12-minute timeout.

Both teams were playing tight in the second half. UNC was only 1-of-7 from outside, and Cal was not in the same offensive rhythm as in the first half. After a Seth Trimble 3-pointer cute the lead to twelve, Cal used their last timeout of the half after failing to bring the ball across half court with seven minutes left. One turnover later and scramble drill lead from UNC and the lead was in single digits.

UNC forced back-to-back turnovers as they extended their defense to full court. A badly needed John Camden pushed the lead back to 11 points, only for UNC to answer with 5 straight points to reduce the lead to six. Tar Heels fans were about one-third of the eight thousand attendees; they were loud as they mounted their comeback. Cal lead 77-71 with 4 minutes left.

With one minute left, Cal lead 79-75. UNC elected to foul early to extend the game. Justin Pippen connected on two free throws, but both Lee Dort and DJ Campbell missed the first half of one-and-one opportunities. Henri Veesaar hit a 3-point shot to cut the lead to 81-78 with 18 seconds left. Cal barely got the ball across halfcourt, where Justin Pippen was promptly fouled. He connected on both free throws to push the lead to two possessions. One UNC miss later, Cal held on for the 84-78 victory.

John Camden led the Bears in scoring with 20 points. Dai Dai Ames and Justin Pippen each added 19 points. The Bears shot 14-of-26 from three point range. Coming into the game, Cal was near the bottom of the league in total rebounding, with UNC being near the top. Today, both teams collected 34 rebounds.

Caleb Wilson was dominant in stretches, but his usage was inconsistent. After starting off the second half strongly, Wilson did not have a shot attempt for over 15 minutes. His 17 points and 4 rebounds were both below his season averages, though he did add 4 assists and 4 steals.

Notes and Observations

• John Camden started ACC play roughly, scoring 23 combined points over the first four conference games on dismal shooting numbers. He has found his mojo the last two games, scoring 31 points on high-percentage shooting. When asked about the turnaround in the postgame, Camden said his teammates lift him up; ”I think just staying confident. My teammates and coaches are trusting me. They’ve been lifting me up every day, even after a stretch of bad games. So, I’ve gotta give credit to them and just hold my head high.”

• Camden, talking about Caleb Wilson and drawing the defensive assignment; “Yeah he’s a really good player. He’s going to make a lot of money playing basketball. But I think we wanted to approach it as a team defense type of thing….my big guys were there to back me up.”

• Coach Madsen described the game as a tale of two halves. Cal won the first, UNC won the second. On Cal’s first half offensive blitz; ”It was nice to see a few shot drop tonight. I was pleased with the ball movement. You could just feel the unselfishness. Pippen is someone who puts pressure on the rim pressure. He has uncanny vision to just see everything in the game as it’s happening around him. But tonight , it was everybody making positive contributions to the ball movement.”

• Montas Kocanas and Milos Ilic both connected on 3-pointers tonight, their first of the season. Both of them have displayed a deft shooting touch prior to their arrival at Berkeley, but the offensive gameplan did not feature them as long range shooters. Coach Madsen indicated you will see more of them shooting going forward. The starting lineup has Dort at center with Camden at the four-spot. In conference play, Cal has been running lineups of Ilic and Kocanas as the frontline. This lineup gives up Dort’s defensive presence in exchange for an outside shooting threat and more effective ball movement on the outside.

• The North Carolina press corps was in full force at this game, being at least equal in number to Cal reporters in the postgame. They were extremely jaded after the Bay Area 0-for-2. After being dominant defensively in the non-conference slate, UNC’s defense has been subpar in their 2-3 conference start. The Tarheels have given up 70 three pointers in their five conference games. Cal’s 14-of-26 from long range was not an aberration to the UNC beat writers.

• UNC fans obviously have high standards for their program. The fanbase and reporters are starting to turn on Coach Hubert Davis. My favorite interaction with a UNC writer before Coach Davis approached the press room. “It’s just the same thing over and over. We have to deal with Bill Belichick, and now we have to deal with him. You’ll see how coach-speak he is.”

• Cal is now 2-3 against ranked competition this year. They have wins over UCLA and North Carolina, balanced by losses to Duke, Virginia, and Louisville. It is the first season that Madsen has multiple wins over ranked teams.

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Cal is now 14-5 overall, 2-4 in ACC play. Cal’s next win will set the high point for Coach Madsen’s tenure at Cal, surpassing last season’s 14 total wins. It would be fitting if that next win was next weekend, as Cal travels to Palo Alto on Saturday to face the Stanford Cardinal.