Bears’ NCAA chances slip
LAS VEGAS — Cal’s Pac-12 tournament run came to an end Friday night, and with that, its chances of an NCAA Tournament berth probably evaporated, too.
Needing a resume-building win against a highly ranked team, the Bears simply didn’t have the athleticism or clutch playmaking to hang with No. 5 Oregon during its 73-65 victory in a semifinal game at T-Mobile Arena.
The Ducks (29-4) advanced to the championship to face the winner of Friday’s late game between Arizona (28-4) and UCLA (29-3) at 8 p.m. Saturday on ESPN, while the Bears have to
wait until Selection Sunday to see whether their resolute effort caught the tournament committee’s attention.
Cal (21-12), playing with leading scorer Jabari Bird at the hospital being evaluated for a possible concussion, trailed only 67-65 after Charlie Moore’s two free throws with 45.5 seconds left.
On a night when the stars generally left it up to the role players, unsung guard Dylan Ennis completed a three-point play to extend Oregon’s lead to 70-65 with 22.6 seconds remaining. After Grant Mullins missed a pull-up jumper in the lane, Ennis sealed it with two more free throws.
Cal made back-to-back semifinal appearances for the first time since 2006-07, but it couldn’t make its third trip to a conference championship game. That’s probably what the Bears needed to make the Big Dance.
It was fitting that Ennis (16 points, five assists) made the game-winning plays for the Ducks, because the role players decided the contest. Cal’s Ivan Rabb finished a rough tournament with 11 points on 4-of-11 shooting, and Oregon’s Dillon Brooks — the Pac-12 Player of the Year — was limited to 10 points on 3-of-12 shooting.
Oregon was led by Tyler Dorsey (23 points) and Jordan Bell (15 rebounds, five blocked shots). Mullins was 5-of-5 from three-point range and scored 23 points to lead the Bears and Moore added 15 points to make it a game after Bird got hurt in the opening minutes.
Bird, who averaged 23 points in Cal’s first two tournament wins, played only 66 seconds in the semifinal. He got flipped while leaping to block a shot in the game’s opening minutes and landed awkwardly, smacking the right side of his of head on the court.
After being treated on the bench for several minutes, Bird left his courtside perch to be evaluated by the arena doctor. With the possibility of a concussion, Bird was ruled out for the remainder of the game midway through the first half.
“It’s tough to see a guy go down like that,” Mullins said. “I just hope he’s doing well and he makes a speedy recovery.”
Without their top scorer, the Bears still managed to lead for 15 minutes in the first half. They limited Brooks to four points on 1-of-9 shooting, but Oregon scored seven of the frame’s final nine points to go into halftime with a 36-33 lead.
The Ducks used a 9-0 run, capped by Ennis’ two free throws, to take a 49-37 lead at the 14:18 mark of the second half. But Mullins scored nine points during the next five minutes, including three on a shot that trimmed Cal’s deficit to 59-55 with 8:53 to play.
Cal was still stalking Oregon into the final minutes.
“I think we’re an NCAA Tournament team, but that’s for them to decide,” Cal head coach Cuonzo Martin said. “I really don’t care what they say. I’m not consumed with what they say. For me, it’s about the whole season. It’s the body of work. If that’s not good enough, then that’s not good enough.
“I didn’t go into this game thinking we had to win to get into the NCAA Tournament. We went into this game to win the Pac-12 tournament. That was our goal.”