Cal men: Marcus Lee stars, but Bears can’t defeat ASU.
Cal celebrated its 1993 NCAA Tournament upset of Duke with a Jason Kidd bobblehead giveaway Saturday night.
Then, the current Bears flirted with pulling an upset that would have been similarly unexpected.
Cal rallied from down 16 points to make it a game before No. 16 Arizona State reasserted its advantages in depth and sharpshooting to hang on for an 81-73 victory in front of 8,107 fans at Haas Pavilion.
The Sun Devils (15-4, 3-4 Pac-12), who are No. 11 in the nation in scoring (87.0 points per game) but had reached the 80-point mark only twice in their first six conference games, outscored Cal 41-10 in bench points and 30-15 from three-point range.
“They are a talented basketball team,” Cal head coach Wyking Jones said. “They’re a top-25 basketball team for a reason. They’re able to bring guys in off the bench and not lose much, if not get better. …
“You can’t be a top-25 team if you don’t have a bench. It’s not possible.”
The Bears (7-13, 1-6) have lost six straight games by a combined 105 points, but they were pleased with their effort in this one. They showed more aggression on defense (seven blocked shots) and better rhythm on offense (13 assists to nine turnovers) than they had for much of their skid.
Senior Marcus Lee tied a career high with 23 points on 10-of-13 shooting and had eight rebounds and three blocked shots to lead five Cal players in double-digit scoring. Darius McNeill had 16 points, Justice Sueing bounced back from foul trouble to score 12, and Juhwan HarrisDyson and Don Coleman each had 10.
Coleman, who entered the game averaging a team-high 17.2 points per game, came off the bench for the first time this season. The Bears, who haven’t won at home since it took overtime to beat Cal State Fullerton on Dec. 16, seemed to feed off one of the best environments at Haas this season.
Cal led for six of the game’s first nine minutes, but Sueing went to the bench with three fouls at the 11:43 mark, and it took Arizona State all of 42 seconds to turn a one-point deficit into a five-point lead.
The Sun Devils, who average 9.3 three-pointers per game, missed their first six attempts. Mickey Mitchell (12 points) finally got one to fall at the 5:31 mark to give Arizona State a 31-21 lead, and the advantage extended to 16 points when he made his second three-pointer about two minutes later.
Sueing returned at the start of the second half and scored seven of the Bears’ first 12 points, including four straight that sparked a 9-2 run to trim the deficit to 55-47 with 13½ minutes to play.
Cal managed to creep within four and then five points in the final 7½ minutes, but both times Shannon Evans II (10 points) hit momentum-halting three-pointers at the other end. His three-pointer with 4:59 on the clock was followed by one from Remy Martin (13 points) that gave Arizona State 11 points of breathing room.
“They’re a great team and a very veteran team,” Lee said. “They knew exactly how to stay composed as they went about the game.”
“They knew exactly how to stay composed as they went about the game.” Marcus Lee, a Cal senior, on Arizona State