San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Bears stay close to Bruins, but can’t close deal
Back-to-back games against USC and UCLA at Haas Pavilion followed a similar script for Cal. The Bears hung with the powers from Southern California for much of each matchup, but fell considerably short at the end.
On Saturday night, the fifthranked Bruins grabbed a 60-52 decision.
Four minutes into the second half, forward Andre Kelly’s basket cut Cal’s deficit to 33-31. UCLA (10-1, 2-0 Pac-12) scored the next seven points, and the Bears got no closer than seven the rest of the way.
Kelly poured in a game-high 22 points for the Bears (9-7, 2-3) as he went 11-for-14 from the floor. He came into Saturday averaging 14.5 points per game this season.
The Bruins, though, put the clamps on the two other Bears who have shared the scoring load with Kelly. Guard Jordan Shepherd (14.6 points per game
before Saturday) had 10 points on 4-for-14 shooting. Forward Grant Anticevich (12.5 ppg before Saturday) scored two points and went 1-for-11 from the field.
The Bears also went 1-for-14 from beyond the arc; Jalen Celestine had the lone 3.
Tyger Campbell led the Bruins
with 17 points. Jaime Jaquez Jr. added 14.
Against No. 7 USC on Thursday night, Cal trailed by only six with less than seven minutes remaining before falling 77-63. The Bears had won nine consecutive home games before that loss to the Trojans.
Coronavirus issues had prevented the Bruins from playing after their 67-56 win at Marquette on Dec. 11 until they beat Long Beach State 96-78 at Pauley Pavilion on Thursday.
With about seven minutes remaining in the first half Saturday, Makale Foreman fed Obinna Anyanwu for an easy two that put the Bears in front 19-16. That equaled the largest lead for either team to that point.
UCLA responded with a 13-2 burst to go up 29-21 with 1:30 left in the half. Back-to-back buckets by Kelly then cut the Bears’ deficit to four.
The Bruins then ran down most of the shot and game clock before Campbell buried a jumper in the lane. The teams headed to the locker rooms with UCLA on top 31-25. Campbell had a game-high 11 points at the break after going 5-for-7 from the floor. Kelly led the Bears with 10 points in the half as he hit all five of his fieldgoal attempts.
Briefly: UCLA has won nine in a row against Cal. Of course, that streak pales in comparison to the 52-game, 25-year domination the Bruins had over the Bears before Cal ended the streak with a 75-67 decision Jan. 25, 1986. … The Bears outrebounded UCLA 37-27. … As of Saturday morning, UCLA had a NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) ranking of 22. Cal’s was 118.