CAL 82, CAL STATE EAST BAY 62 Bears show some offensive life in exhibition
Baby steps. This Cal men’s basketball team promises to be better on offense than it was during last season’s 8-24 struggle, and the Bears offered a few examples to support that view during Tuesday night’s 82-62 victory in an exhibition against Cal State East Bay.
After a disjointed first half, Cal started to find some rhythm on offense, including a 10-1 run that extended the lead to 21 points and showcased some of the improvements.
“I think we’ve got some good athletes on our team,” said Paris Austin, a transfer from Boise State. “Transition will be something that would be really good for us, but it starts on defense. Our team defense and then rebounding a ball and getting out early.”
Justice Sueing got the run started with a three-pointer, and less than 10 seconds later, Jacobi Gordon added another one. The freshman, who is playing about a year after tearing his Achilles, added two free throws, and Grant Anticevich had a dunk to cap the 60-second flurry.
Maybe most important, the Bears had three assists during the run. Last season, they ranked 350th in the nation with 9.8 per game.
Austin had eight of the team’s 12 assists, often finding Sueing for open shots and connecting with Matt Bradley in transition. Bradley scored a team-leading 18 points to go with five rebounds and three assists. Sueing had 15 points and seven rebounds.
“Tonight I knew that, in order to play good my first game, I just had to play really aggressive and not really think about messing up or getting a bucket or whatever it was,” Bradley said.
Of course, everything wasn’t rosy for Cal, which is projected to finish 11th in the Pac-12, according to a preseason vote by media members who regularly cover the conference. There were long stretches when the Bears went stagnant on offense, prompting head coach Wyking Jones to repeatedly plead with his players: “Move the ball.”
“What I told the guys throughout the course of the game, when we move the ball around and make the defense work, we got really good looks,” Jones said.
“We took a lot of rushed shots tonight,” Austin said. “I think everybody was just excited to get out there and play so they wanted to try everything on the first try.”
Cal won by 20, but it probably should have been even more lopsided. Cal State East Bay is a Division II team that went 10-18 last season.
Cal opens its regular season against Yale on Nov. 10 (8 p.m. PST Nov. 9) in Shanghai.