Offensive Woes Continue as The Bears Fall to ASU 80-66

Cal, playing without the injured Paris Austin and sporting a much bigger starting lineup, came out with energy and the willingness to get to the bucket in their Pac-12 home Opener against Arizona State Wednesday night, but couldn’t overcome its offensive woes ultimately falling 80-66. 

Sophomore Guard Remy Martin led the Sun Devils in scoring with 24 on 9-14 shooting; Senior Forward Zach Cheatham chipped in 17 points and six rebounds, and Junior guard Rob Edwards scored 13 points and six rebounds. ASU outrebounded Cal, 34-33, and had 16 assists to Cal’s 8.

Matt Bradley, finding his way into the starting line up again, had 19 to pace the Bears and a new career high.  Darius McNeil had 16 points on 4-11 shooting missing shots we are use to him hitting. As a team the Bears shot 38% from the field and only had 8 assists for the game. 

Cal struggled to be consistent on offense all game long without their starting point guard and leader for the second straight game. Wyking Jones on the impact of not having their point guard:

 “We need our point guard back. Our offense was stifled. Matt Bradley has given us everything he has. Darius is as well, but those guys aren’t point guards. And so, we need to get Paris Austin back. I think they fed off of us not being able to score. They fed off of; their offense got ramped up when they were able to get stops. We just don’t have the same flow offensively that we have when we have Paris.”

Cal turned to a big starting line up this time without Austin starting Matt Bradley, Darius Mcneil, Justice Sueing, Andre Kelly, and Connor Vanover. Cal came into the game searching for its first win in conference play playing at home in Haas Pavillion Wednesday night.

Bear Insider

Freshman Guard Matt Bradley on his way to a career high 19 points. 

The Bears couldn’t get it done despite the Sun Devils missing its first 11 of 12 shots of the afternoon and going up as much as 14 with just about six minutes to go in the first half. The Sun Devils then woke up closing the half after a sloppy start on an 11-2 run to trail 33-35. 

The Change?

“What was changed was Remy Martin started hitting shots, so now you can’t keep the zone as tight, you gotta go out and guard him.” Said Wyking Jones.  “And so when you gotta go out and guard the guys at the top of the key, it opens up the high post, and then they started hurting us. They had the one play where they ran through the high post and went back door and got a dunk. So, he played a great game. Gotta give him credit. He comes into the game shooting 19 percent from three, and he goes five for seven. When you’re playing the statistics you say, okay, let that guy shoot. We did that, at the beginning of the game and he made us pay.”

Martin was the playmaker ASU needed to step up in the game, and he was able to knock down his looks and get Cal to overextend its zone, which allowed dribble penetration and open looks for his teammates. 

Both teams played back and forth in the second half until Martin was able to hit back to back three-pointers to push their lead to nine (53-44) with 9:46 and Cal never seemed to recover.  

ASU moves to 2-1 in conference play, and 11-4 overall. Up next for the Sun Devils is a game on Saturday against Stanford.

Cal falls to 0-3 in conference play and 5-10 overall. Up next for Cal is a game on Saturday against the Arizona Wildcats.