Cal men: Sueing’s 27 points not enough.
SEATTLE — Sitting on the bench with three fouls midway through the first half, Don Coleman starting hearing the heckling chants from the Washington student section: “We want Coleman.”
Cal’s junior guard never managed to show up.
Coleman tied his season low with four points, spoiling a career night from Justice Sueing as the Bears lost 66-56 in a winnable game against the Huskies on Thursday night at Alaska Airlines Arena.
Cal (7-10, 1-3 Pac-12) has lost four of its past five games overall and dropped a road game for the first time this season, struggling to develop any offensive rhythm against Washington’s full-court press. The Bears scored a season low in points and had 18 turnovers to nine assists.
It would have been even worse if not for Sueing. The freshman forward went 11of-16 for a27 points, adding eight rebounds on a night when his teammates failed to offer much help.
“I don’t know what I had, but it doesn’t matter to me unless we get the W,” Sueing said. “If we don’t come out with the win, it doesn’t matter what I did personally.”
Coleman, who came into the game averaging a team-high 18.9 points per game, went 0-for-4 from the floor. He didn’t get on the board until he hit two free throws early in the second half and fouled out with more than 12 minutes to play.
Cal players not named Sueing went 11-for-36 from the floor and 1-for-9 from threepoint range against Washington (13-4, 3-1), which has already surpassed last season’s conference win total.
The Bears forced a seasonhigh 20 turnovers but converted the gaffes into only 21 points, failing in a bid for their first four-game road winning streak since beating New Mexico, Cleveland State, Washington and Washington State during the 2002-03 season.
Cal’s defense, which allows 47.2 percent field-goal shooting at home and 39.1 percent on the road, allowed four Huskies to reach double-digit scoring. Jaylen Nowell led the way with 20 points, Noah Dickerson added 12, and David Crisp and Michael Carter III each had 10.
Cal had to feel fortunate to go into halftime trailing just 28-24, considering starting power forward Marcus Lee and Coleman combined to play only 12 minutes because of foul trouble. Sueing kept the Bears within range, scoring nine of Cal’s first 11 points and going 6-of-9 for 14 first-half points.
The rest of the Bears combined to go 5-of-17 for 10 points in the first half, including a 6-minute, 57-second scoreless stretch. During the drought, Washington took an 18-11 lead, but Sueing had five points during a 10-2 run that put Cal back in front.
After early foul trouble, Coleman returned to start the second half and finally got on the board with two free throws at the 17:20 mark. He was whistled for his fourth foul and fifth fouls (a technical) on a single sequence with 12:47 remaining, and Washington cashed in on the free throws and the ensuing possession for a 45-38 lead.
“I told him that he can’t do that,” Cal head coach Wyking Jones said of Coleman. “We all get frustrated sometimes, but you can’t react like that and get a technical, especially when it’s your fourth foul. He’s a veteran player, and he can’t do that.”