Cal kept it close but did not lead once against Harvard on Sunday afternoon before falling 71-63 to the Crimson. Cold shooting doomed the Bears (6-7) as they ended the game shooting 35% from the field and 26.7% from three. Cal led Harvard (9-4) in most statistical categories, but it didn’t end up being enough.
Sophomore guard Matt Bradley led the Bears in scoring with 15 points, but went 4-14 from the field, including 0-6 from three-point range. Senior guard Kareem South added 13 points and made two of Cal’s four three-pointers. Grant Anticevich was the only other Bear to finish in double figures with 12 points. Andre Kelly led the Bears with seven rebounds and the Bears out-rebounded the Crimson 37-34. Most impressively, Cal out-rebounded the Crimson on the offensive glass 13-3 but it wasn’t enough. The Bears also had just nine turnovers compared to Harvard’s 13 but only generated two points off those 13 turnovers while Harvard created 11 points off Cal’s miscues.
Harvard was without its leading scorer Bryce Aiken who was on the sidelines in a suit and a boot. But forward Chris Lewis more than took over in Aiken’s absence. Lewis led all scorers with 19 points on 7-of-7 shooting from the field and 5-of-5 shooting from the free-throw line. Lewis also led Harvard with four blocks. The Crimson had 11 blocks for the game — a season-high for Harvard.
The Crimson slowly pulled away from the Bears in the first half and built a 33-20 lead with 2:50 to play in the half. Harvard ended the half going 1-of-4 from the free-throw line with multiple turnovers but Cal was only able to close the lead to 10 at 34-24 at the break. Down eight with 11:22 to go in the game, Anticevich had a chance to pull the Bears within six, which would’ve been the closest the game had been since the 7:59 mark. But after making the first, the second clanked off the rim and Harvard used a 7-0 run to extend the lead to 53-39 with under eight minutes to play.
Harvard extended the lead to 15 — it’s largest of the game — at 58-43 off a Christian Juzang three-pointer. But Cal went on a 7-0 run over the next 1:41 of playing time to bring the game back to 58-50 with 4:18 to go off a Kareem South layup. Five of the seven points were from South. With seconds winding down on the shot-clock, Juzang shot a contested three but Bradley was called for the foul. After the media timeout, Juzang knocked down all three shots, pushing the lead back to double digits at 61-50 with 3:50 to go.
After two Bradley free throws, the Bears brought it back within six with 58 seconds to go, but that’s as close as the score would get the rest of the game. Harvard made seven of its last eight free throws and closed out the game.
The Bears return to action on Thursday, January 2 at Stanford to kick-off Pac-12 play. The Cardinal (11-2) also lost its non-conference finale at home to Kansas, 72-56.
