Oregon State Uses Big Second Half to Pull Away from Cal

Senior guard Paris Austin scored a season-high 18 points and freshman forward Kuany Kuany added a career-high 11 points, but Oregon State used a big second half to down the Cal Bears, 74-56. The Beavers used an early 10-2 run to gain a 20-10 lead with 8:39 in the first half, but Cal battled back late, scoring the half’s final five points, closing the gap to 26-21 heading into the locker room.

From there, it was all Oregon State (17-13, 7-11). After a quick second-half bucket, bringing the game to 26-23 in favor of the Beavers, OSU slowly pulled away, building a 10-point lead with 13:56 to play in the game. From there, Cal (13-18, 7-11) wasn’t able to close as the lead fluctuate between nine points and 20 points the rest of the game.

Similar to Thursday night’s game against Oregon in Eugene, Cal struggled from the field. The Bears shot 37% (17-of-46) from the field including 23.5% (4-of-17) from three. Meanwhile, Oregon State shot 44.4% (24-of-54) from the field including 40.9% (9-of-22) from three. Cal also struggled with turnovers, committing 16, which led to 20 Oregon State points. The Beavers turned it over just eight times and Cal was only able to generate six points off those turnovers.

It was the second time all season that Cal’s leading scorer Matt Bradley didn’t hit double digits in scoring. Bradley struggled with turnovers and missed shots in the first half and then found himself in foul trouble for much of the second half. Bradley went 2-of-10 from the field. His only two field goals were three-point shots, where Bradley went 2-of-6.

Austin and Kelly were the only Bears that had much success from the field on Saturday. Austin went 5-of-8 from the field and 8-of-9 from the free-throw line while Kelly went 4-of-6 from the field for eight points. Kelly led the Bears in rebounding with 10 including three on the offensive side. Kuany only made one field goal — a three-point shot — but like Austin went 8-of-9 from the free-throw line. After setting a career-high in scoring with nine points against Oregon on Thursday, Kuany bested it in the very next outing with 11 against the Beavers.

The Bears had no answer for Oregon State senior forward Tres Tinkle who poured in 24 points on 7-of-17 shooting including 4-of-8 from three. Senior center Kylor Kelley also added 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field. 

After winning three-out-of-four in the stretch playing Washington State, Washington, Colorado, and Utah, Cal’s season ended in a bit of a thud with blow-out losses to Oregon and Oregon State. Still, the Bears ended the regular season with seven Pac-12 wins, which is more than the past two seasons combined. 

With Oregon State and Utah winning today, Cal falls into a three-way tie for eighth place. Depending on how the remaining games go today, Cal will end up as a nine or ten-seed in the Pac-12 tournament. Either way, Cal will play in the first round on March 11.