The Cal Golden Bears clawed and scrapped all the way till the end of Thursday night’s game against the Oregon Ducks. But in the end, the Bears fell just short at Haas Pavilion, losing 77-72 to the No. 11 Ducks.
With less than ten minutes to play Cal sophomore guard, Matt Bradley made one-of-two free-throws, pushing Cal’s lead to 55-50. A scrappy Bears team had been getting enough key stops and drilling enough shots to put No. 11 ranked Oregon (18-4, 7-2) in a tight spot. But then the Bears ran out of gas while Oregon pressed down on the gas going on a 22-5 run, pushing the lead to 72-60.
Down 72-60 with 50 seconds to play, it looked like the game was over. But Cal (9-11, 3-4) — mainly Bradley — would not go quietly into the night. Bradley ripped off his own 7-0 run, bringing the game to 72-67 with 26 seconds to play. Both teams kept trading free-throws until a Paris Austin layup brought the score to 75-72 with just one second to play. Oregon’s Payton Pritchard made two more free-throws with that second to go and the Ducks escaped.
Bradley had an epic second half. After scoring just five points and sitting on the bench with two fouls for a portion of the first half, the San Bernandino-native exploded for 20 points in the second half. Bradley finished with 25 points to lead all scorers on 9-of-17 from the field, including 4-of-8 from three.
Oregon’s Payton Pritchard paced the Ducks with 21 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field. Chris Duarte of the Ducks also added 19 and Will Richardson added 15.
For the Bears, Bradley was backed up by Kareem South who added 13 points and Paris Austin with 12, and Grant Anticevich,who added 10. Cal’s offense, which has been dormant for most of conference play came back on Thursday night. The Bears shot 49% (23-of-47) from the field including 9-of-18 (50%) from three. Cal also tied Oregon in the rebounding battle at 27 for the game.
It was a competitive game from the get-go. Cal jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead, but Oregon battled back to tie the game at 6-6. Over the next 2:13, the Bears would go on a 9-3 run to build its biggest lead of the half at 15-9. Oregon countered with an extended 16-5 run that lasted just under seven minutes. Bradley fouled Oregon’s Duarte on a three-point shot with 7:58 to go in the first half. Duarte made all three free-throws to extend Oregon’s lead to 25-20, capping the 16-5 run. Both teams went scoreless for 3:28 of game time before Andre Kelly knocked down two free-throws.
A couple of Austin free-throws and a Lars Thiemann putback after a Joel Brown miss put Cal up 26-25 with 2:58 to play in the first half. Both teams went back-and-forth until Grant Anticevich made his second three-point shot of the half, putting the Bears up 32-30 with 28 seconds left in the half. Oregon’s Richardson answered with a layup at the other end as time expired in the half with the score tied at 32.
Bradley was limited in the first half with two fouls and scored just five points before sitting. Thiemann and Anticevich picked up the slack in Bradley’s absence. Thiemann scored eight points on four-of-four shooting while adding two offensive rebounds. And Anticevich had a breakout half pouring in four points on 3-of-4 shooting and adding five rebounds. Both players would go scoreless in the second half.
Cal dominated Oregon on the glass in the first half, doubling up the Ducks on rebounding 16-8 and outrebounding Oregon on offensive boards 7-2. Duarte and Richardson led Oregon in the first half, combining for 23 of Oregon’s 32 points. Ducks’ leading scorer Pritchard also sat for quite a bit of the first half with two fouls.
Pritchard made up for lost time and scored the second half’s first six points, pushing Oregon’s lead to 38-32, but Cal wouldn’t go away. The Bears battled back on an 8-0 run and used back-to-back Kareem South three-pointers to take a 42-40 lead at the first media timeout with 14:29 remaining in the game.
Cal then used a 14-2 run spanning more than four minutes, taking a 48-42 lead after a Paris Austin and-one. Oregon’s Richardson drilled a three at the other end, bringing the lead down to three but Kareem South answered with a jumper of his own, pushing the lead back to five at 50-45 with 11:29 to play. South wasn’t done. An alleyoop to freshman D.J. Thorpe pushed Cal’s lead to seven — it’s biggest of the game at 52-45 with 10:58 to go in the game.
The Bears had another seven-point lead at 54-47 before Oregon’s Shakur Juiston made a three, bringing the score to 54-50 in favor of Cal with 9:54 to play. A Bradley free-throw pushed Cal’s lead to 55-50 with 9:26 to play. But Oregon would use a 13-3 run over the next 4:20 to reclaim its lead and push it to 63-58. A pair of Paris Austin free-throws ended a scoring drought that lasted nearly three minutes for the Bears.
Cal has a quick turn-around before hosting Oregon State on Saturday.
