Bears Hold Off Seattle U, 70-65

BERKELEY -It wasn’t pretty and wasn’t anything like their masterpiece on display in their recent win over Cal State Northridge, but the Bears overcame a rough first have to fight back for a tight 70-65 win over gritty Seattle U squad this afternoon at Haas Pavilion.

Unlike Saturday’s 87-56 victory, where the Bears got out of the gate quickly on their way to 31-point win while shooting 61% from the field and 53% from three, the Bears got down right away to Seattle and never managed to take the lead till late in the game.

“Sometimes you just have to find a way to win,” said Cal head coach Mark Fox. “Seattle came into the game more prepared to play than we did. I didn’t feel great about our mojo today. I thought our preparation was average.

“We have to have a better and more mature approach coming into the game because it’s a game we felt like we should win. But even when you feel you should win, you have to play to a certain level. I thought that their team was really out of the gate better than ours was so we played from behind.”

Once again, the Bears were without leading scorers Matt Bradley (18 ppg) and Grant Anticevich (10 ppg), who was in the stands observing his teammates, while Bradley was on the bench and making his case to get in the game, even after not being able to practice yesterday.

“We’re obviously severely disjointed with the lineups we’re playing,” said Fox. “We just had to manufacture and find a way to win, which we did.”

Seattle, who got up by 10 several times, most recently at 32-22 with 3:23 left in the first half was led by guard Riley Grigsby with 20 points on 7-for-15 shooting along with 8 boards. Grigsby’s the son of former Cal standout Al Grigsby, whose number is retired for the Bears.

The Bears went into the locker room down by four, 37-33 after an 11-5 run to close out the half, with solid contributions coming from F/C Kuany Kuany, who shot 5-for-7, including 1-2 from three to add eight first half points and 11 overall before leaving the game with a turned ankle.

The Bears finally took the lead for the first time on a Ryan Betley banked three to go up 55-53 with 7 minutes left in the game. Betley led the Bears on the day with 17.

After Seattle retook the lead, soph guard Joel Brown hit back-to-back treys to put the Bears in the lead for good. Brown finished with 12 points on 5-for-9 shooting, adding four rebounds, as well.

“Joel’s an improved player from a year ago,” said Fox. “He’s a much-improved shooter. He just needs to develop the confidence in games he shows in practice. He’s been a very good defender for us.”

“I think during the offseason back home, I worked on getting better,” said Brown. “I’m playing with high-level shooters in practice and they’re just raising the bar for us competing in practice. So my confidence has gone up and I feel more comfortable shooting.”

The Bears moved to 5-4 on the season and will be off till league play opens vs. Oregon Dec. 31 in Eugene at 7 pm.

Related: 

Bears Put it All Together in Rout of Cal State Northridge