San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Bears’ skid reaches 10 games
Late run comes up short as losing streak approaches school record
Cal had two chances late to tie Washington State at Haas Pavilion on Saturday afternoon but the Bears could not convert either opportunity and wound up with an imperfect 10.
That’s a 10-game losing streak for Mark Fox’s team, which fell 68-64.
“I thought we did some good things, but not enough to win,” Fox said. “We can’t play 37 minutes. We’ve got to play 40, and we’ve got to play a little bit more mistake-free.”
The Cougars were up 60-48 with 71⁄2 minutes remaining before Cal responded with a 13-3 run capped by Joel Brown’s putback. That cut the Bears’ deficit to 63-61 with just more than a minute remaining.
Efe Abogidi got fouled on the Cougars’ ensuing possession. He hit both free-throw tries, but the Bears got a break when WSU was called for a lane violation on the second attempt. The Cougars’ lead was 64-61.
The Bears then moved the ball smartly and Jordan Shepherd got an open look from Cal basketball legend Gene Ransom, 65, died Friday night in a shooting on I-880. beyond the arc. His shot was off the mark and the Cougars got the rebound off a scramble. Shepherd went 0-for-7 from long range.
Michael Flowers made two foul shots for the Cougars but Jalen Celestine answered with a banked-in 3-pointer and Cal was down 66-64 with 25 seconds left.
Noah Williams missed the front end of a 1-and-1 and the Bears had a chance to tie or take the lead, but Brown’s forced jumper in the lane with six seconds to go wasn’t close.
Flowers got fouled and dropped home two more foul shots for the game’s final two points.
“We’re certainly having a hard time putting one in the win column,” Fox said. “We have to continue to do the right things and be a little bit more complete and play more good minutes than we played today.”
Celestine, a sophomore, led
Cal sophomore Jalen Celestine scored a career-high 20 points in the Bears’ home loss to Washington State.
Cal (9-15, 2-11 Pac-12) with a career-high 20 points.
Grant Anticevich came off the bench to score 16 points. He went 6-for-11 from the floor, including 4-for-5 on 3-point tries. The senior forward from Australia hadn’t scored in double digits since going for 19 against USC on Jan. 6.
“I don’t think I lost much confidence,” Anticevich said. “My teammates and my coaches all trust me to keep shooting the ball and not change anything I was doing. I had to keep doing the same thing. I knew
eventually they’d fall.”
Flowers had a game-high 21 points for the Cougars (14-7, 7-3), who’ve won five in a row. That streak began with a 65-57 victory over the Bears on Jan. 15.
As for streaks, Cal’s 10-game losing streak is six shy of the school record set in the 2018-19 season, right before Fox became the head coach.
Anticevich has experienced both skids. He said the 2021-22 Bears are in better shape than the 2018-19 Bears.
“We’re a good team. We know we’re a good team. We played good basketball today. We’ve just got to play a full 40 minutes. So, you can’t compare it to (2018-19) at all.”
The highlight of the first half — at least from the Bears’ perspective — came about midway through the period. WSU’s TJ Bamba grabbed a long pass and looked poised to turn it into a fastbreak slam. However, Kuany Kuany rose and emphatically rejected the dunk attempt.
Kuany made a similar play against Stanford’s Spencer Jones in the first half of Cal’s 57-50 loss at Maples Pavilion on Tuesday night. Kuany didn’t get credited for a block against Jones, but Kuany’s effort did lead to Jones missing a dunk try.