San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Bears start rare streak on Austin’s clutch shot
The Cal men’s basketball team has its first winning streak in nearly a year.
The Bears grinded throughout Saturday night’s game against Cal Poly at Haas Pavilion and got a clutch bucket from Paris Austin for a 67-66 victory that gave them consecutive wins for the first time since a three-game streak last December.
Donovan Fields’ runner put Cal Poly ahead 66-65 with 16 seconds left, and in anticipation of a switch, Cal head coach Wyking Jones called for Justice Sueing to set a screen for Austin. Sure enough, Mark Crowe switched onto Austin, and the 6-foot-5 wing was no match for Austin’s agility.
The junior point guard used a crossover dribble to create separation and then knocked
Cal 67, Cal Poly 66 down the winning 15-footer with 3.8 seconds remaining. After the shot, he darted toward the other end of the court and pounded his chest.
“It felt good, just that my teammates trusted me with the last possession of the game,” said Austin, who had 10 points. “Once I made it, I was just so happy that I just ran back.”
After beating San Diego State with 13 three-pointers — the most since 2009 — and a season-best 18 assists, Cal (4-5) played a grimier game to beat Cal Poly (3-6). The Bears used 20-for-24 free-throw shooting to overcome a poor night from long range (5-of-17).
Cal was led by Sueing, who fought through a defense that consistently collapsed on his high-post catches for 15 points and seven rebounds. Matt Bradley added 11 points, and Darius McNeill had 10.
“There’s a lot of growth in the sense that, at the beginning of the season, it just looked like he was pressing to make plays,” Jones said of Sueing, who went 8-for-10 from the foul line. “Now, I see him looking more comfortable and letting the game come to him more. He’s picking and choosing his spots to be aggressive.”
The Mustangs got 26 points from Fields, who came into the game averaging 15.9. He took 21 of Cal Poly’s 52 field-goal attempts to create a back-andforth game that neither team led by more than eight points.
Cal tried to pull away from an 8-8 tie in the game’s opening five minutes and managed a 28-20 lead in a first half that was disjointed thanks to sloppy play and five official reviews. The Bears shot just 33.3 percent in the first half, including 4-of-14 from three-point range, but they took advantage of eight Cal Poly turnovers to take a 32-29 lead into halftime.
Connor Vanover didn’t return after a collision late in the first half and appears to be headed for concussion protocol. Without the 7-foot-2 freshman center, who had a career-best seven points in 11 minutes, the Bears struggled to find offense.
The Mustangs took their first lead 99 seconds into the second half when Daxton Carr and Fields hit back-to-back threepointers to make it 35-34. Fields also orchestrated a highlightreel sequence, scoring seven points in a row and then finding Hank Hollingsworth on a pickand-roll to put the Mustangs up 61-60 with 4:02 on the clock.
Cal Poly went without a basket for the next 2½ minutes, allowing Cal to go back on top 63-62. Bradley made 3 of 4 freethrow attempts during a 31second span to give Bears a lead with 1:47 remaining.
Fields missed a layup with 46 seconds left, but Hollingsworth was fouled on a putback attempt. The Cal Poly big man knocked down the free throws for a 64-63 lead, setting up the dramatic punch and counterpunch from Fields and Austin.
“I’m happy that Paris hit the shot. It gives him a lot of confidence,” Jones said. “He’s been doing everything that we’ve been asking him to do.”
Rusty Simmons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rsimmons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Rusty_SFChron