Celestine’s ‘phenomenal’ burst sparks Bears
Of the many ways to chronicle how Mark Madsen has turned around a Cal basketball program that went 3-29 last season and has endured six straight losing seasons, this ranks with the most illuminating:
After the Bears pulled out an 81-73 victory over Oregon State at Haas Pavilion on Thursday night, they improved to 8-8 in Pac-12 play. The eight conference wins are one more than they managed in the previous two seasons combined — and Cal has four Pac-12 games remaining.
The Bears outscored OSU 4730 in the second half and finished with a program-record-tying 16 3pointers.
Cal’s previous half-dozen seasons had turned a once-thriving program into a struggling one. Since the mid-1980s, Cal had produced NBA players such as Kevin Johnson, Jason Kidd, Lamond Murray, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Leon Powe, Ryan Anderson and Jaylen Brown.
The current players aim to return the program to its earlier prominence.
“We all came here to make a difference,” said swingman Keonte Kennedy, a transfer from Memphis who scored 11 points Thursday. “We know where (the program) was before.
“We believe we’re a championship team. There’s still a (Pac-12) tournament to be played and a lot of games to win. We’re here for it.”
Oregon State (11-16, 3-13) has lost seven in a row, but it led for 32:12 on Thursday night. Cal was in front for only 5:20 but improved to 12-15 overall.
Center Fardaws Aimaq led the Bears with 21 points and 11 rebounds for his Pac-12-high 18th double-double of the season. Cal also got 17 points, all in the second half (including five 3-pointers), from Jalen Cone. OSU’s Jordan Pope, who is from Oakley, scored a game-high 23 points.
Cal trailed 50-42 with 15:31 left. The next 29 seconds turned into the Jalen Celestine show. The redshirt junior, who had 15 points, hit two foul shots, then swiped a Dexter Akanno pass near the top of the key and benefited with an uncontested dunk.
Moments later, almost the exact play: Celestine stole an Akanno pass near the top of the key and dribbled home for another slam.
Said Madsen: “I told the guys in the locker room I’ve never seen a sequence like that in all my years of playing or coaching basketball: consecutive steals, consecutive dunks.
“That’s just hard work, anticipation and a guy making some phenomenal defensive plays. … I thought that sequence helped change the momentum of the game.”
That made it 50-48 OSU, and it was as close as the Bears had been since they trailed 5-4 three minutes into the game.
With nine minutes left, Cone buried a trey from the left side to give Cal a 64-62 edge. That marked the Bears’ first lead since it was 2-0.
The game went back and forth from there. It was 71-71 with about 3 1 ⁄ minutes left. Aimaq grabbed 2 an offensive rebound after a Jaylon Tyson miss and fed Celestine on the left side for a 3-pointer to give the Bears the edge. They stayed in front the rest of the way. Cal ended the game on a 15-2 run.
The Beavers fell to 0-11 away from Gill Coliseum this season (eight true road games and three neutral-site matchups). That only begins to describe OSU’s woes away from Corvallis. Since the start of the 2021-22 season, Oregon State has one win in 41 games (including 10 on neutral courts) that weren’t at home. The lone win? At Cal, a 68-48 decision Jan. 22, 2023.
On Thursday, the Beavers led by as many as 11 early in the second half. This marked the third Pac-12 game in which the Bears trailed by double digits (20 against Colorado and 10 against Stanford) and rallied to prevail.
“We have done it multiple times where we get down double digits and come back because we have that fight in us,” Cone said. “We also have that belief in one another with the pieces we’ve got, we can come back from anything.”
Briefly: Tyson went 3-for-15 from the field and scored seven points. He had reached double digits in scoring in every game he played this season. The transfer from Texas Tech contributed five rebounds, five assists and two blocks. … Cal moved into sole possession of sixth place in the Pac-12. … The Bears host Oregon on Saturday afternoon in their final regularly scheduled home game of the season. The Beavers will play at Stanford on Saturday.