USC, Boatwright take control early, Trojans rout the Bears 89-66

By Morris Phillips BERKELEY, CA–The Golden Bear highlight of the evening? Jacob Orender’s 3-pointer in the game’s final minutes. For Cal, that’s not good. The Bears started lethargically, likely in deference to the effort they expended in an overtime loss to UCLA on Wednesday, and were routed by the USC Trojans on Saturday evening, 89-66. […]

Running Out Of Gas: UCLA hangs around then stuns Cal in OT, 75-67

By Morris Phillips BERKELEY, Calif. — Typically, the Cal Bears can’t seem to stop anyone from scoring. On Wednesday, their issues were with scoring themselves. From a competitive standpoint, the change put the Bears in a more esteemed place by leaps and bounds than they’ve been during a lengthy, 12-game losing streak. But ultimately, losing […]

Coaches On The Floor: OSU too smart in crunch time for winless Cal

By Morris Phillips Ethan Thompson may be just a sophomore in accordance with his NCAA status, but on Saturday afternoon with the game on the line, the wily point guard was Oregon State’s professor emeritus. With OSU clinging to a 73-71 lead with less than two minutes remaining, Thompson drove on Cal’s Darius McNeill and […]

Not Much Difference: Cal competitive early then wilts at Oregon in 73-62 loss

By Morris Phillips Cal’s high point was also the beginning of the end for the Bears on Wednesday at Oregon’s Matthew Knight Arena. A 7-0 run capped by Justice Sueing’s three-point play gave the Bears a 15-13 lead with 9:32 remaining in the first half.  It would be the final lead for the Bears on […]

What Now?: Late game, reversed call prevents Cal from ending losing skid

By Morris Phillips BERKELEY, Calif. — The made shots, assists, team effort and the coaching staff’s approval all leaned heavily toward the Cal Bears on Sunday afternoon. The critical, late game calls made by the officials did not. The Bears appeared to gain an 83-83 tie on Matt Bradley’s physical drive for a bucket and […]

Making Themselves At Home: Utah the latest visitor to take advantage at Haas Pavilion, win 82-64

By Morris Phillips BERKELEY, CA–Utah needed to do two things: get their offense cranked up to take advantage of one of the nation’s worst defenses, and play the typically, stingy ball-hawking defense that Larry Krystkowiak-coached teams are known for. To Krystkowiak’s dismay, the Utah offense kicked in immediately while his defense took its sweet time […]

Putting It All Together Is The Hard Part: Cal skid hits eight in loss to Colorado

By Morris Phillips BERKELEY, CA–The Cal Bears hadn’t been in a close game late in three weeks. But there they were, after overcoming an 18-point deficit, leading Colorado 54-53 with 7:04 remaining on Thursday night. It would soon become a fleeting moment. The Bears would lead just once and see their losing streak reach eight […]

Bad Break: Cal falters after halftime, Washington surges to 71-52 win

By Morris Phillips The Washington Huskies are the most recognizable thing the Pac-12 has to offer these days. Deep, athletic and experienced, UW currently projects to be a 10-seed were the NCAA tournament to commence next week. UW is the only conference team to have a tournament profile at this point. Arizona, Oregon and Arizona […]

Only Place To Look Is Up: Cal lands in the Pac-12 basement, lose to WSU, 82-59

By Morris Phillips The Cal Bears can’t get any lower than this. In a sleepy, sparsely populated Beasley Coliseum, the Bears were supposed to be purposely competitive with Washington State, the one other Pac-12 team that hadn’t done much thus far this season, similar to Cal. But instead of purposely competitive, the Bears were surprisingly […]

Home Not Hospitable: Cal’s struggles at Haas continue in 87-65 loss to Arizona

By Morris Phillips BERKELEY, Calif. — Hard to believe, but the Arizona Wildcats went more than eight minutes without scoring a field goal on Saturday night at Haas Pavilion. Didn’t matter much, the Cats led 14-10 when the drought started, and they still led 22-17 when it ended. The statistical oddity said a lot more […]