First Half Dooms Bears in Loss to Gaels

Seemingly buried under a barrage of St. Mary’s three-point shots, Cal came back to make a game of it Saturday night at Haas Pavilion before falling to the Gaels, 89-77..

The Bears (6-5) took a brief early lead, then the Gaels (10-2) started firing away from long range. They came into the game hitting 44.4 percent from beyond the arc, tops in the nation, and showed the Bears that number was no fluke.

Until they missed their last two first-half three-point attempts in the frantic final six seconds the Gaels had knocked in nine of their 11 tries from long range. That was the main reason they built their 45-29 halftime lead.

The margin grew to 19, but the Bears showed some grit. They denied the three-point shot, holding the Gaels to just one three-point bucket and a mere two attempts in the second half. What did Cal do differently? 

“Essentially we changed our effort,” head coach Mark Fox said afterwards. “We did change one matchup, but we changed our effort in the second half...I thought we played much a more focused and determined approach in the second half.” 

The Bears also improved their offense in the final period. WIth Andre Kelly muscling up shots against the bigger Gael front line and Grant Anticevich hitting from mid-range, Cal got to within eight points a couple of times, but could not trim the margin any further.

 Kelly led the Bears with 26 points, 20 in the second half. He had three old-fashioned three-point plays.

"My teammates did a really good job of looking for me, I was trying to be aggressive,” Kelly said. “A lot of them were telling me, ‘Just keep attacking,’ because I was doing good. So, I was just looking to be aggressive.” 

Anticevich had eight of his 11 after intermission. Bradley had 14 for the game..

Gaels star Jordan Ford, who seemingly made a crucial bucket every time the Bears got close, wound up with 32 Milik Fitts had 28, 21 in the first half.

“He’s a tough matchup,” said Fox, who assigned Juhwan Harris-Dyson to guard Fitts in the second half. It also helped Cal’s cause that Fitts got into some foul trouble, eventually fouling out.

Cal, or more precisely Kareem South, came out smoking and gave the Bears some early hope. South hit two three-pointers, two jumpers and, along with a pair of Kellly free throws shot Cal into a 12-4 lead with a little more than five minutes gone.

Then the Gaels, who had missed their first six shots started bombing away. Fitts lead the attack by hitting six of eight from beyond the arc. Sometimes the Bears did get a hand in his face, sometimes he was wide open. No matter. The result was usually the same.

Fox felt the Bears let some problems they were having on offense, carried over to their defense in the first half. 

“We let some offensive struggles impact our defense in the first half against a very good offensive team,” Fox said. “You obviously can’t do that St. MAry’s shot the ball extremely well as we knew they would. 

“But we battled back. We aren’t into moral victories and never will be.”

The Gaels also paid attention to South and the Cal offense went stagnant for much of the half. After his initial outburst, he did not get a shot off the rest of the half, and finished with those ten points.

Fox said part of the reason South’s production lagged was that he spent a lot of time playing point guard, something he isn’t used to. “It’s hard to score from there,” he said.

Fox did pick up his first technical of the season, when he protested too vigorously on an admittedly questionable foul call against Bradley in the second half. 

“I did accept a technical foul.,” he said. “I do know this if there is a point where I have to fight for my team. I will every single time.”

St. Mary’s coach Randy Bennett was asked if he feels the Bears are better than they were a year ago. 

“No question,” said the Gaels’ head man who has turned the Moraga school into a player on the national stage. “They were 6-0 at home until tonight. Their losses on the road have been to good teams. ...They are not where they need to be, but they’re good. Mark is laying a foundation and they are going to go somewhere.”

The Bears and Gaels, who have met 85 times total, mostly in the mid-20th century, have concluded their latest three-game series. They may not meet again for a while. Fox said it “is nothing against St. Mary’s” but he said the Pac-12 will be adding two more league games next season, thus lessening the opportunities for non-league matchups.

Cal is off until next Saturday when it takes on Boston College in the Chase Center in San Francisco as part of the Al Attles classic.

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