Team Effort: Cal beats Florida State 77-68
With Andrej Stojakovic out due to illness, multiple Bears step up
An hour before gametime, Cal announced the leading scorer Andrej Stojakovic would miss the game with an unspecified illness. Stojakovic is a volume player, who touches the ball on offense far more than any other Golden Bear. The primary concern is how would Cal distribute his missing touches that account 19 points per game, in addition to his capacity to guard multiple positions on the defensive end.
Jeremiah Wilkinson earned his first start of the year, joining Jovan Blacksher Jr. and DJ Campbell in Cal’s 3-guard lineup. Collectively, the threesome was shorter than FSU’s trio of guards by over a foot. FSU extended their defense for most of the half, frequently going to full court press in an attempt to force turnovers. Cal’s guards were slowed down but not wholly contained by the Seminoles. They found the open pass more often than not, to the tune of 7 first half assists, higher than their season average of 5 assists per half. In his postgame comments, Jeremiah Wilkinson called FSU’s height “a blessing and a curse”, and he was confident in his ability to get around and under the defense on his way to the basket.
Joshua Ola-Joseph subbed in at the first media timeout and made an immediate impact at both ends of the court. JOJ immediately hit a 3, then had a steal and court-length pass for the assist on a Mady Sissoko dunk that ignited a 9-0 Bears run to give them an early 17-10 lead. Florida State would fight back. FSU leading scorer Jamir Watkins(18.6 points/game) kept them close, scoring 14 points in the first half. Cal maintained a small lead for the rest of the half, and led 37-33 at the break.
Cal was led by Ola-Joseph’s 11 points, with Wilkinson adding 10. Mady Sissoko continued his aggressive streak on the defensive end. In addition to his 4 points, Mady added 3 blocks and a steal early on to set the tone. Rytis Petraitis also filled up the stat sheet with 6 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal in the first half.
The second half began as a back-and-forth affair as Cal maintained a slim lead early on. FSU’s Jamir Watkins picked up his 4th foul with 14 minutes left in the game. He had scored 16 points when he was forced to the bench for an extended period. The Seminoles’ second leading scorer Malique Ewin (10 points so far) was also forced to sit for an extended period after picking up his 4th foul about a minute later.
Florida State continued to fight, and pulled ahead briefly at 51-49 after a well designed set play right after the 12-minute media timeout. It was their first lead since the game’s opening minutes. Cal immediately answered with a DJ Campbell 3-pointer, and a Joshua Ola-Joseph slam-dunk and free throw after a nice bounce-pass assist from Jeremiah Wilkinson(masthead picture). Cal regained the lead 55-49. It was a lead they would never relinquish. Cal continued to lead by 6, 59-53 when FSU’s Ewin and Watkins returned to the game at the 8-minute mark.
Cal pushed the lead to 12 with 4 minutes left, 67-55, as the Bears leaned on heavy minutes from Christian Tucker and other reserves as leading scorers Ola-Joseph and Wilkinson were playing with 3 fouls. The Seminoles never got closer than 6 points the rest of the way, closing to 69—63 with just under 90 seconds left. Cal played solid defense down the stretch, and sunk 8 straight free throws to clinch the win, 77-68.
It was a team effort for the Golden Bears. Wilkinson led Cal in scoring with 18 points, and Ola-Joseph added 14. Mady Sissoko was a defensive menace on his way to a double-double. He collected 13 rebounds, 5 blocks and 2 steals to go along with 14 points. Rytis Petraitis also had a double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds. Rytis had 8 offensive rebounds, and was able to beat his defender to get the rebound and second-chance bucket on multiple occasions.
Some observations from tonight;
Happy Birthday to Rytis Petraitis, who turned 22 today.
Cal had 24 offensive rebounds, a season-high. They are averaging 13.3 offensive boards per game, just behind conference leading SMU’s 13.4 rebounds. When I asked Rytis Petraitis about his 8 offensive rebounds after the game, he indicated that the scouting report showed FSU likes to leak out into transition against jump shooting teams, and they expected Cal to play back after the shot. He and Mady Sissoko instead attacked the basket and caught FSU not being ready for a Bear to be attacking for the rebound.
Though the team stepped up in Stojakovic’s absence, Andrej’s presence was definitely missed. Most notably, Cal was missing a go-to creator when things broke down on offense. Several times the Bears were unable to get their offensive sets going against the taller FSU defenders, and the ball handler would be isolated 30’ feet from the basket with the shot clock winding down. In those situations, Andrej would come and get the ball, and then attack and create a reasonable shot attempt. Without him, several of those situations resulted in rushed shots and blocks. FSU finished with 9 blocks total.
With the win, Cal moves to 10-9 overall, 3-5 in conference play. They currently sit in 10th place (18 teams). Cal hosts Miami on Saturday. The Hurricanes are winless in conference play and appears to have given up on the season. The Bears should be favored or at worst toss-ups in three of their next four games. This is the stretch where Cal has a chance to move into the upper middle class in the conference.
Photo courtesy Rob Hwang Jeremiah Wilkinson displays an uncanny ability to change his attack angle and control the ball as he attacks the rim on his drives. In the picture above, Wilkinson is ceding 6 inches of height to FSU’s Justin Thomas. As Wilkinson get to the rim, he senses Thomas coming in for the block and changes his position enough to use his body as a shield. Wilkinson then puts enough spin on the ball for it to go laterally across the backboard and right into the hoop. Thomas’ attempt at a block never had a chance.
Cal returns to Haas Pavilion on Saturday, hosting the Miami Hurricanes at 530pm. The first one-thousand fans will receive a white Cal jersey featuring Oski. Coach Madsen is optimistic about Andrej Stojakovic being available for the game, saying he may be back as early as tomorrow for practice.
That W shows tangible progress. Beating a talented, Leonard Hamilton-coached FSU team with size and length…
Imagine this squad with a game-changer at the PG position next year…fingers crossed.
The Bears played really good defense against the taller FSU players. Wilkinson was a real spark on offense. He should start from now on. Sissoko was outstanding both on defense and rebounding.