Bears' Three-Game Winning Streak Ends With A Thud
"Mama said there'll be days like this."
Unfortunately for the Cal basketball team, there have been too many.
The Bears suffered yet another embarrassing loss Thursday night at Haas Pavilion, getting demolished by Portland State, 106-81. Cal (6-7) has now lost convincingly to Portland State, Central Arkansas, UC Riverside, and Division II Chaminade.
"I just think we weren't focused," admitted junior guard Don Coleman, who led the Bears with 19 points, but also committed a game-high six turnovers. "We had won three straight and kind of got big-headed, and thought we were going to come in and blow them out, and you see the outcome. We can't do that."
"I'd just like to see more fight at this point," added head coach Wyking Jones. "I thought we had made tremendous strides in those areas - in fighting, executing, and staying focused. We just took a step in the wrong direction tonight."
Take nothing away from Portland State (10-3). The Vikings are a talented team, with wins over Stanford and Cal, and competitive losses to Duke, Oregon, and Butler.
But for the Bears, it's back to the drawing board, their recent three-game winning streak now a distant memory. It really felt like Cal had turned a corner. The road wins over San Diego State and Seattle were particularly impressive.
"We're a young team, and some games we come in not focused like we should be," Coleman assessed. "When we played San Diego State, we were focused and locked in. When we played Portland State, we weren't locked in and thought we were just going to come in, go past them and win, which was not the case."
Added Jones: "I think we have the type of team that can be upset by anybody on any given night, or we can upset anybody on any given night. As a coach, that's a hard place to be because it's both sides of the spectrum. But we've got good kids. Hopefully they learn from this situation and they're ready to play on the 30th (at Stanford)."
Perhaps we should have seen this coming - Portland State thrives on forcing turnovers and speeding up the tempo, and Cal has shown an inability to break a full-court press. Thursday night, the Bears committed a season-high 26 turnovers, leading to 40 Vikings points.
Portland State finished with six players in double figures. The Vikings recorded 26 assists, 13 coming from freshman guard Holland Woods. As a team, Cal had just six assists.
The Bears now have eight days to regroup before their conference opener at Stanford. They responded to the Central Arkansas debacle with three straight wins. We'll see if they can do it again.
Notes
- Cal allowed 100 points for the first time since a 109-77 loss at Washington on Feb. 10, 2011
- Kingsley Okoroh blocked seven shots to tie the school record
- Deschon Winston scored a career-high 10 points
- Nick Hamilton recorded a career-high five rebounds