No. 6 Wichita State 92, Cal 82:
The Bears give up an 18-point, second-half lead in falling to the Shockers.
LAHAINA, Hawaii — Cal’s defensive pressure had the players for No. 6 Wichita State looking stunned, throwing errant passes easily intercepted and casting up rushed shots as the Bears’ lead grew.
For much of the game, Cal had a team considered a Final Four candidate looking as if it wouldn’t get out of the first round of the Maui Invitational.
Then, with one tactical switch, Wichita State looked more like one of the nation’s best teams, leaving the Bears wondering what happened as the Shockers recovered from an 18-point deficit for a 92-82 victory.
Forced into a fullcourt press to lengthen the game, Wichita State hit the Bears with a barrage of traps and resultant layups in its comeback in the final 16 minutes.
“They more or less kind of had us on our heels,” Cal head coach Wyking Jones said.
Don Coleman sparked the Bears’ strong start with 26 firsthalf points and finished with 35, his third game of at least 30 points this season.
However, Cal (2-2) had 19 turnovers that led to 29 points for Wichita State (3-0) and was shorthanded up front with Kingsley Okoroh and Marcus Lee contributing little before fouling out. Lee finished with two points and five rebounds in 11 minutes. Okoroh had two points and four rebounds in 21 minutes.
Cal went right at the Shockers, racing to an 11-point lead in the game’s opening 5½ minutes. Wichita State couldn’t get anything to fall — 4-for-18 to start — and Cal stretched the lead to 29-15 behind Coleman, who had 17 points in the opening 13 minutes. At halftime, Cal was up 47-38.
The Bears continued to attack the Shockers in the second half, taking their biggest lead at 58-40 on a three-pointer by Justice Sueing with 16:38 left.
The Shockers turned around the game by turning on their pressure cooker, rattling the young Cal team with their fullcourt press. Through a string of turnovers, Wichita State went on a 14-3 run that cut Cal’s lead to seven, and then kept hounding and kept scoring as the fans inside tiny Lahaina Civic Center roared. The Shockers tied it at 76-76 on Samajae Haynes-Jones’ layup with just more than five minutes left. An 8-0 run put them up 86-80 — and into the semifinals against Marquette.
The Bears “left it all out on the court today,” Jones said. “They fought. They played with a lot of heart and toughness. Ultimately, experience won out. ... What I've been preaching the whole time is that hopefully we get better game in and game out. So I felt like we got better today.”
The frontcourt foul trouble had a heavy toll on Cal. The Bears were outscored 46-26 in the paint, outrebounded by 11 and gave up 28 second-chance points on 24 Wichita State offensive rebounds.
Shaquille Morris scored 25 points and Landry Shamet added 23 for the Shockers.
Cal will play VCU in the consolation bracket at 1 p.m. PST Tuesday.