Cal Basketball

Bears Fall to OSU, 59-57

By Jim McGill

February 25, 2021

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BERKELEY -A strong start and first half lead weren’t enough to hold off OSU as the Bears fell 59-57 to the Beavers at Haas Pavilion -their third loss to the Beavers this season.

“I’m disappointed with the loss,” said Cal head coach Mark Fox. “I thought in the first half, I thought we played complete. Outside of sending them to the foul line, I felt like we defended well. I thought offensively, we shared the ball well.

“We had a very poor start to the second half. What will get magnified is the poor play at the end where we had a foul at the end of a shot clock that we should’ve just surrendered. They were in trouble and we bailed them out with a foul and gave them two free throws.

“It’s the defensive possessions in the second half that decided the game. We did not defend at the level you need to to win.”

The Bears got out of the gate strong, hitting their first five shots while building a 14-2 lead in the first five minutes. It didn’t take OSU long to whittle down the lead, however, climbing back to within two points with 3:43 left in the half after an 8-0 run before the Bears padded their lead a bit to go into the locker room up five, 33-28 on the strength of forward Andre Kelly’s 11 first half points on perfect 4-for-4 shooting.

The Bears shot a solid 57% from the floor in the first half but their shooting stroke didn’t hold, finishing the night at 41% and just 2-for-17 from behind the arc.

OSU took control to start the second half, going on a 9-0 run to start the half to take the lead at 37-33 - a lead they’d never relinquish after a brief tie at 37 after back-to-back Matt Bradley buckets. Bradley led the Bears with 20 points on the night. It was the junior’s 11^th game at 20 points or more on the season for the Bears.

After OSU extended their lead to 7 at 57-50 with 4 minutes left in the game, the Bears tried to claw their way back, with a chance to win it on their last possession with the ball in Bradley’s hands -right where they wanted it. However, Bradley lost the handle on the ball without getting a shot on the break as time ran out on the Bears’ chances.

OSU center Roman Silva led the Beavers with 15 poins. Kelly finished with 15 points and Jalen Celestine added a career-high six rebounds.

The Bears will wrap up the regular season Saturday vs Oregon at Haas Pavilion. The game was moved to 1 pm and wll air on the Pac-12 Networks. Cal fell to 8-18/3-16 on the season while OSU moved to 12-11/9-9.