Cal Wins Uphill Battle Versus USF
The Golden Bears struggled in their 72-70 victory over the USF Dons, trailing for the entire game before the final seconds. Ultimately, a Makale Foreman three gave them their first lead of the game and win against a solid USF squad.
In the first-half, Cal shot poorly at 38% from the field, and their shots came almost entirely from two players, Andre Kelly and Grant Antecevich, who scored 26 of the team’s 29 points against USF’s 37. Matt Bradley was the only other scorer with a three-pointer on 1-7 from the field. The next half was different, where Cal scored 43 against USF’s 33.
As a whole, Cal was very effecient from the field in the second half, hitting 58% of their shots. Matt Bradley transformed his performance with 14 points on 6-7 including one three-pointer. Kelly played another good half, scoring 2-3 from the field and 6 out of 10 from the free throw line. Still, Cal’s defense allowed a solid 46% from the field to the Dons.
The Bears carved their way out of a game where they trailed against a team they were expected to beat. Makale Foreman came through with a dagger three in a 70-66 comeback with 1:45 left to go. The Bears were unexpecting this less accomplished Don squad, but perhaps a wake up call is in order. The Bears stand 3-4.
Mark Fox had some words about the win :
“I felt like we didn’t play great out of the gate and played up hill the rest of the night. I feel like our resiliency showed. To win the game like we did. That’s one of the magical parts of college basketball.”
“We don’t win today without the performance of Andre Kelly. He probably didn’t enjoy the last couple of days. I was really hard on him. I knew he could play better. He really responded tonight and we don’t win the game without him. He got a little fatigued there, but it was certainly nice to see him come back and be as productive as he was today.”
“I am really proud of Matt (Bradley), We had called 30-second timeout prior to that full timeout. When it got to a one-possession game, we knew what we were going to do in the situation. I still had a timeout to use but we didn’t want to let them set their defense. So we put a call in and Matt knew. ‘Hey, as soon as you’re bottle up you pass it and we turned it to the weak side. And Makale obviously hit the shot he’ll remember for a long, long time.”
“We had a couple of games back there (the East coast), one we had yet to announce. We had a COVID situation come up. It’s fair to say the East coast trip is probably in jeopardy., The administration is working hard on resolution because there were two games in that trip hopefully in the next or two we can arrange something.”
Other Stories:
Bears Fall Behind Early, Lose at Pepperdine, 74-62
Men's Basketball Falls to UCLA