San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Bears’ stumble ‘major step back’ against Trojans
After showing a blip of competitiveness in staying within single digits of three of their past four opponents, the Bears got right back to their lopsided losing ways against USC on Saturday night at Haas Pavilion.
The Bears never led, trailed for 39½ of 40 minutes and were down by as many as 31 points in an 89-66 blowout that extended their school-record losing skid to 14 games and secured the first back-to-back 20-loss seasons in program history.
“We took a major step back today,” Cal head coach Wyking Jones said. “… I don’t know if it’s fatigue. I don’t know what it is, but we were just a step slow on every rotation. Our communication wasn’t there. … We’ve got to get back on track, because we’re just in a funk right now.”
Other than its current twoseason stretch, which included a school-record 24 losses a year ago, Cal’s only other 20-loss seasons were in 1978-79 and 1987-88. The Bears (5-20, 0-13 Pac-12), who haven’t won a conference game since beating Oregon State 74-70 on Feb. 3, 2018, never had a chance to break the streak against the Trojans (14-12, 7-6).
Just 1-6 on the road this season and coming off three straight losses, USC made its first four shots, including a 3-pointer by Bennie Boatwright that set the tone for his huge night and made it 11-0 in the game’s opening three minutes.
The 6-foot-10 senior forward scored 36 points on 10-of-13 3-point shooting and the Trojans dished out 24 assists on 31 field goals. The Bears barely had more assists (11) than turnovers (10).
Coming off limiting UCLA to 39 percent shooting Wednesday — the first time holding an opponent to under 50 percent since Washington made 44.7 percent Jan. 19 — Cal’s defense was statistically better when it wasn’t guarding the Trojans.
USC shot 61.3 percent from 3-point range and 44.4 percent from the free-throw line.
“Of course, it’s disappointing,” said Cal sophomore forward Justice Sueing, who scored a team-high 17 points. “I wouldn’t say it was ‘discouraging.’ We can’t just look back as we’re still progressing through the season. We have to continue to make strides. Although this was a little setback, as far as how we’ve been playing of late, we have to keep pushing.”
On a night when the Trojans went 19-of-31 from 3-point range, Boatwright was the best player in the gym. He made his first five 3-pointers, often holding his shooting pose and looking at the Cal bench as he pushed USC’s lead to 19 points with 2 ½ minutes left in the first half.
In finding new ways to define ineptitude, the Bears committed three turnovers before managing to take their first shot of the second half. They didn’t actually make a shot until the 16:44 mark, when they were facing a 23-point deficit.
Boatwright took advantage of many of the Cal gaffes, making nine of his first 10 3-point attempts and adding a schoolrecord 10th make with 4:05 remaining. After Boatwright passed Anthony Pendleton (1987) and Katin Reinhardt (2015) on the school’s singlegame list, USC head coach Andy Enfield called a timeout and let Boatwright soak in the moment before watching the rest of the landslide from the bench.
“Typically, they put things in the rearview and come back with the right attitude. This one’s tough. It’s tough for (the players). It’s tough for the staff,” Jones said. “We just didn’t have the fight we normally have.”
Rusty Simmons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rsimmons@ sfchronicle.com
Twitter: @Rusty_SFChron
USC 89, Cal 66