Cal loses:
Tumultuous week concludes with an NCAA 1st- round defeat
Shorthanded Bears are no match for 13th- seeded Hawaii in 77- 66 loss in NCAA Tournament.
SPOKANE, Wash. — Jaylen Brown leaned forward in his chair, jersey pulled up to his chin, as he stared at the ground before him.
“It’s over,” Brown said, his words slow and measured. “The season’s over. That’s the only thing I can think about.”
Fourth- seeded Cal lost 77- 66 Friday afternoon to No. 13 Hawaii in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. In a week already marked by chaos, the Bears couldn’t weather yet another setback: Guard Jabari Bird — one of the biggest reasons behind their late- season surge — was a late scratch to due to back spasms. The Bears had already lost starter Tyrone Wallace to a broken hand Wednesday, and having two of their top five scorers sidelined put the onus on Brown. In what was likely his college finale, the projected NBA lottery pick piled up more turnovers ( seven) than points ( four) before fouling out with more than six minutes left.
HAWAII 77, CAL 66
Twenty- four Cal fouls resulted in 20 made free throws for the Rainbow Warriors. In its program’s first NCAA Tournament win, Hawaii shot 51.9 percent from the field. Deer Valley- Antioch alum Quincy Smith paced three Warriors players in double digits with 19 points.
The Bears trailed for all but seven minutes, 19 seconds. Midway through the second half, Hawaii used a 17- 7 run to build a comfortable cushion. Cal players were left wrestling with just their third defeat in the past 12 games.
“What happens is you have a level of momentum, you’re going into something, and you hit a bump in the road,” head coach Cuonzo Martin said. “It’s tough for our guys to overcome. But for us as a staff, as men, this is life.”
Friday was a gut- check ending to a tumultuous week for the Bears.
Monday morning, in the wake of a sexualharassment scandal, assistant coach Yann Hufnagel was fired. Tuesday night, Cal announced that it was investigating head coach Cuonzo Martin’s handling of the allegations against Hufnagel.
Wallace, their leading scorer, broke a bone in his right hand in practice Wednesday. Back in Berkeley to undergo tests on his hand, the senior shot an encouraging text to his teammates before the game.
“To have his support in our corner was big for us,” said Bird, who entered Friday averaging 14 points over his last 11 games. “We were just so excited coming into this game to have a chance to make some history.”
Then came more bad news. Teammates learned of Bird’s injury when the public address announcer read the starting lineup. After four days guarding against outside chatter, Brown said, the loss of Bird came as a “tough surprise.”
A Cal defense that led the Pac- 12 in a number of categories this season never surfaced Friday. Hawaii gouged the Bears ( 23- 11) on pick- and- rolls, clearing lanes for easy looks at the rim. The Warriors ( 28- 5) made 24 of 38 two- point attempts. It hardly mattered that, on a day intended to mark his team’s jubilant return to March Madness, guard Jordan Mathews poured in 23 points.
“I just don’t know what went wrong offensively,” center Kingsley Okoroh said. “We just were missing shots we normally make.”
The mood in Cal’s postgame locker room was more shock than heartbreak. Five days removed from celebrating the highest seed in program history, players struggled to pinpoint why they ultimately couldn’t recover from their news of the day.
“Sunday, you kind of had this feeling like you’re invincible,” Bird said. “You feel like, ‘ Oh, we’re going to walk in and just beat this team from Hawaii.’ But it’s not like that. Tournament seeds don’t matter. Every team is here for a reason.”