Bears Hold Off Beavers in Wild Finish

Cal overcame some cold streaks and Oregon State’s ability to draw fouls and shoot free throws Saturday afternoon and held off the:Beavers 69-67 in an exciting men’s basketball game at Haas Pavilion.

The Bears (10-11, 4-4 Pac-12) and Beavers (13-9, 3-7) battled on nearly even terms for most of the game. Cal did it with grit and timely field goal accuracy, OSU with the ability to draw fouls and convert the free throws. 

In the end the Bears prevailed, but this one might have been the case of the last team at-bat wins. It was that close.

“It was a hard-fought game,” Cal coach Mark Fox said. “Certainly a  great win for our young people. I was proud of the number of kids on our team that contributed to the win and allowed us to beat an experienced and well-coached Oregon State team that is really hard to disrupt.”

Nobody contributed more than Matt Bradley and Andere Kelly.  Bradley again led the Bears in scoring with 23 points and drew a crucial charging foul in the wild final seconds.

That made up for his missing two late free throws that could have made the ending a little less tense.

Kelly had  14 points, all in the second half, and was a force under the basket.

“We don’t win without Andre, that’s for sure,” Fox said.

Although he did not shoot terribly well, 3-for-9 from the floor, Grant Anticevich contributed 11 rebounds, most of them important. 

The game was tied for the 13th and last time when Paris Austin hit one of two free throws to make it 64-64 with 3:36 left. Then things got crazy, usually to the delight of the 6.322 fans in the building.

The Beavers multi-talented Tres Tinkle, who led them with 19 points, missed a three-pointer, Anticevich grabbed he rebound but saw his three-point attempt go in and out. Tinkle rebounded for the Beavers, who missed another trey at the other end.

At 2:16 Kelly, put the Bears up for good with a tough shot from underneath. At 1:45 Anticevich grabbed the rebound of another errant OSU shot and put the Bears up by four with a lay-up. 

OSU’s Alfred Hollins converted the next possession for 68-66.

Austin missed his drive attempt and the Beavers seemed poised to tie the game when Hollins, who had been 7-for-7 from the line, hit his first free throw but missed the second. 

Bradley got the rebound and was quickly fouled, but uncharacteristically missed the front end of his 1-and-1. OSU got the rebound and with 18 seconds left, the Beavers had a chance. However Kelly blocked Ethan Thompson’s short shot. After a bit of a scramble, OSU had the ball with seven seconds to go.

They set up a play for Tinkle, but when he moved for the hoop, Bradley was in his way. The officials called a charge, a decision they verified on replay.

“I saw him put his shoulder down and I knew he was going to try to get to the rim,” Bradley said. “I knew he was a really good player, he’s their leading scorer, so if the ball was in his hands he was going to take a shot. So I knew if I just stepped out of the restricted zone and took the charge if it was going to happen, and hopefully, it wasn't a blocking foul, and they called a charge."

Bradley was fouled on the inbounds, made one just one of two free throws but OSU’s desperation heave went for naught.

Each team had their moments, good and bad,  during the afternoon. The Bears who led for more than 15 of the first 20 minutes, turned cold at the end of the half. Austin’s jumper put Cal up by six at 30-24 with 4:11 left before intermission. The Bears did not score again until 1:40 had been played in the second period. By that time OSU had gone from six points down to three ahead. And so it went.

Oregon State shot 30 free throws to the Bears’ 17. “They get there (the free throw line) more than anybody else in the league,” Fox said. “They start two seniors, three juniors. They’re battle-tested, they know where to go with the ball. they can space you with shooting. Tres is such a good player to draw fouls and play with contact. It’s a skill that they have.”

Following the horrible trip to Los Angeles, Cal has won two of three games. They now have one more conference win than they did last year. While 4-4 is not the greatest  record, it certainly looks good in comparison.

"I told them on Day One, 'Listen, there's a way that we can play that will allow you to win more games than you did a year ago,'" Fox said. "'It may not be the way you ideally want to play and may not be the prettiest way to play, but there's a way, this group can play to scratch out some wins.'

"I'm fortunate that they've bought in, and we've been able to get some.."

Notes

• Kuany Kuany hit a three-pointer at 8:24 of the first half to put Cal up 23-20. It was just his second trey of the season.
• Anticevich brought a roar from the crowd when he blocked a lay-up attempt by Alfred Hollins.
• Neither Jacobi Gordon (injury) nor Juhwan Harris-Dyson (academics) has played since the first Stanford game Jan. 2. Fox doesn’t expect either back very soon.
• Next up for the Bears is the treacherous mountain trip: at Colorado Thursday and Utah Saturday.
• Kareem South was 0-for-6 from the floor and scored just two points.
• Kelly and OSU’s Kylor Kelly were both assessed a technical foul in a little skirmish that was quickly defused and Kelly shrugged off afterward.
• Cal is 10-3 at home.
• The Bears had only eight turnovers, two in the second half.

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