Anticevich Goes Off and Bears Roll to 3-0

Junior forward Grant Anticevich had a career night, pouring in 23 points on 9-of-11 shooting and 5-of-5 from three and the Bears used a massive second half to put away the Cal Baptist Lancers, 82-62. Anticevich got rolling early and scored the game’s first six points on two made three-pointers. 

The 5-of-5 from three tied a school record for the most threes made without any misses. Amit Tamir and Eric Vierneisel share the record with Anticevich. “No, I don’t know. What is that,” Anticevich responded when he was asked if he knew who Tamir was. Once it was established who Tamir was, Anticevich responded, “A who?”

Tamir’s record-setting night came against Arizona State in 2003. Vierneisel went 5-for-5 in 2008 against Washington.

Anticevich said he is starting to feel more comfortable in the offense. “I think just starting to feel more comfortable,” he said. “My teammates were being really unselfish,” he also added.

Matt Bradley, Cal’s resident long-range sharpshooter approved of Anticevich’s efforts. “That’s big-time,” he said.

Head Coach Mark Fox said he did not judge any of the players based on their play last season when taking over the job. “From day one, we thought Grant was a really good three-point shooter,” Fox said. “So we built that into what we were doing because he’s shot it well from the day I arrived.”

Cal started strong and led 27-16 halfway through the first half. But the Bears shooting cooled and the Lancers heated up and the teams went to halftime tied at 40. The Lancers’ Milan Acquaah made the second half’s first basket and put Cal Baptist up 42-40. It would be the Lancers’ only lead of the game. The Bears used a 17-0 run over the span of about six minutes to put the Lancers away.

“You have to be willing to learn in the games you win and not just the games when you get your tail beat. To be honest with you, this group just hasn’t been ahead a lot,” Fox said. “And so we didn’t handle it well — the great start. We handled it very immaturely to be honest with you. And it cost us. It cost us a double-figure lead in the first half. And we were fortunate at halftime to self-correct and start playing some defense and leave here with a win over a well-coached, quality team.”

Cal has yet to be leading at the end of the first half. 

“I thought we decided we were gonna start playing defense,” Fox added. “In the first half, we were just gonna let Grant shoot every ball in and just think that we could all shoot the ball. I don’t think we guarded anybody the first half.”

The Bears used a 26-6 run to open the second half to put the game away.

“In the second half we decided it was going to be important to us and it generated some offense,” Fox said.

Bradley, who has been leading the team in scoring pitched in 16 points on 4-of-9 shooting. Bradley’s shot wasn’t falling like it had in the previous two games, but he found other ways to score, going 7-of-7 from the free-throw line. Bradley is now averaging 21.3 points per game on the season. Grad transfer Kareem South was the only other Bear to score in double-digits, adding 10 on 5-of-10 shooting. 

The Bears continue to be an elite shooting team, shooting at a clip of 57.1% from the field and 54.5% from three. Cal shot 68% from the field in the second half. Meanwhile, Cal Baptist, which is one of the better three-point shooting teams in the country couldn’t buy a bucket. The Lancers shot 33.3% from the field and 25.8% from three on 31 attempts. The second half was particularly rough for the lancers as they shot 23.3% from the field and 12.5% from three. Cal dominated in the paint, outscoring the Lancers 38-22 and out-rebounding the smaller Cal Baptist team 38-27.

Acquaah, who has been averaging nearly 20 points a game so far this year had a tough night, going 3-of-16 from the field and 1-of-5 from three. He still managed 10 points, which was second-highest for Cal Baptist. Ferron Flavors, Jr. led the Lancers with 11 points.

The Bears return to action on Monday when they host Prairie View A&M, which is the second game of the 2K Empire Classic. According to KenPom’s standings, Prairie View A&M is the lowest-ranked team Cal has faced this year.