Cal turned in one of their best stretches of basketball this season Thursday night, erasing what had been an 18-point Colorado lead and actually went ahead late in the second half.
However, the Buffaloes struck for seven straight points and kept Cal at arm’s length from there until they had finished the 68-59 decision at Haas Pavilion.
All Cal (5-14, 0-7 Pac-12) has to show for its effort is an eighth straight loss. Colorado (10-8, 2-4) knows that it was in a battle for most of the night.
The Bears played the first half and the early part of the second in much the same way they have all season. Shooting just 39.1 per cent from the floor in the first half the Bears trailed by as many as 15 in the opening period.
“We had a spell in the first half when we just couldn’t score,” head coach Wyking Jones said, “I said, ‘Fellas we are settllng for shots as opposed to getting the shot that we want’, ...In the second half you saw us be more aggressive,.attacking the rim and that is what we want to do.”
They actually closed the first half with a bit of a rush, and when Paris Austin barely beat the buzzer with a lay-up, Cal trailed by just 34-23. However the Buffaloes scored the first seven points of the second half to go up 41-23.
At that point Colorado had 14 assists and Cal just three.
The margin stayed in that area until Jones went to a small lineup. With four guards, Austin, Darius McNiell. Juhwan Harris-Dyson and Matt Bradley on the floor with forward Justice Sueing, Cal started to make their shots, grab rebounds and keep the Buffs off balance.
“If we can get stops with that small lineup, we are very hard to guard,” Jones said.
Colorado was still up 52-41 with little more than 11 minutes left when the Bears really bore down. They went on a 9-0 run to get within two and when Bradley hit two free throws at the 7:04 mark Cal was on top, 54-53.
The lead didn’t last long, however. While the Bears went cold, Tyler Bey hit a follow shot to give Colorado the lead back, and Lucas Siewert hit a three and McKinley Wright a medium range jumper. Suddenly the score was 60-54.
Two Kelly free throws and an Austin floater had the Bears within two at the four minute mark, but Cal managed just one more point the rest of the way while Colorado pulled away.
“In the final four minutes I saw guys who had given everything they had kind of getting tired,” jones said. They just kind of ran out of gas after fighting back. We got down 18, that’s a lot of points. Paris had a layup at the rtim that he missed. Matt dribbles one off his foot.. Those are just fatigue plays.”
Despite the loss Jones saw quite a bit that he liked. “They just showed a lot of toughness that I have been waiting to see for a long time,” Jones said. “That was the bright spot for me. To see our guys battle back and get stops. They are a bigger team and we still got stops...And then once we got stops we did a good job in transition.”
The crowd of 5,720 was certainly into the rally and was a noisy as any Haas gathering has been this year.
The Bears also took great care of the basketball. They had just four turnovers all night, and Bradley’s late faux pas was the only one of the second half.
With the small lineup, the Bears did give up some rebounding and lost the battle of the boards, 37-24.
Austin scored 13 points as did Sueing, who had ten in the first half. Bradley who had ten in the second finished with 12.
“We’ve got to play 40 minutes, that’s a point coach has been emphasizing,” Sueing said. “We don’t have the margin for error where we can lay back….Those little spurts like we had at the first half really hurt us at the end of the game.
Roman Davis, who was the shining light in the otherwise dreary trip to the Northwest last weekend, made his second consecutive start but was not on the floor long. He played three basically ineffectual minutes in the first half, and after two ill-advised shots was gone after 2:47 in the second.
The Bears say they will carry on. “We’ve just have to get ready for the next game,” Austin said. “We’ve got another game Saturday We will come in tomorrow keep our heads up, watch film practice.
“It definitely hurt, considering we haven’t won yet but we’ve got to put it behind us.”
Notes: Freshman Jacobi Gordon was unavailable because of a tender Achilles… Austin had seven assists, his most since had had 11 against San Jose State. ..Seuing had three steals, his season high….Siewert had 18 points to lead all scorers.
