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Bears Get in the Win Column 75-70 Over USD

November 15, 2021
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BERKELEY -The Bears came into Monday night’s contest vs. USD badly in need of a win after a disappointing 0-2 start of the season. In the end, it may not have been pretty or decisive but the Bears’ 75-70 victory was just what the doctor ordered for the struggling program.

The Toreros came in with an impressive 75-68 win over Nevada while the Bears suffered their second straight defeat in a tight 55-42 loss to UNLV in Las Vegas on Saturday.

“We started out slow but we made a couple adjustments with the subs and Jared (Hyder) and Sam (Alajiki) came in and made some plays for us,” said point guard Joel Brown. “Then in the huddles, we kept talking about defensive stops so we can score and run our plays. But playing defense created a lot of those scoring opportunities.”

USD had the upper hand early, getting off to a 16-8 lead seven minutes into the game before the Bears got hot, going on a 19-6 run on the strength of five straight 3-pointers, including a pair from forward Kuany Kuany. The Toreros came back to even things up at the half on a mini 12-6 run to close out the stanza, with Cal forward Grant Anticevich on the bench with three fouls.

The Toreros took the lead to start the second half, going up by as many as five 3:40 into the half on an Earlington trey, 43-38. However after Foreman’s second trey of the game put the Bears up 46-43 with 13:20 remaining, the Bears never relinquished the lead. 

The Bears were led by Anticevich with 17 points (5-8 and 3-3 from three) and also got solid contributions from Jordan Shepherd and Andre Kelly with 14 and 13 points and Brown chipping in with 12 points and 7 assists. The return of the Aussie’s perimeter game was a big boost for the Bears. Overall, they went a scorching 10-15 from deep.

Though glad to get in the win column tonight, don’t express horns and streamers from Fox after the victory.

“I don’t think we played as well tonight in many ways as we did on Saturday,” said Fox. “I thought Saturday was a physical, hard-fought game and I thought Saturday we managed the game better than we did tonight. 

“Tonight we made some shots that covered up some mistakes. But as we continue to build forward, we have to improve our defense. I thought we played a step behind in the first half and gave up a couple of threes out of the gate. Did the same thing in the second half.

“We’ve got to be able to shore up our three-point defense and as we get comfortable with some guys on the court, hopefully develop a rotation that gives us a little bit better flow offensively.”

The Bears will square off Thursday night against 2020-21 Big West champ Southern Utah, coming off an ugly 70-51 loss to St. Mary’s in Moraga Monday. The Thunderbirds return virtually their whole roster from their 20-4 team.

Discussion from...

Bears Get in the Win Column 75-70 Over USD

6,827 Views | 19 Replies | Last: 2 yr ago by SFCityBear
GameDay
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"Kuany with the Bears' third straight trey after Brown and Antibody started the run. Cal 20 USD 18."

I like it. A new nickname, fitting in these pandemic times.
MoragaBear
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Staff
Doh! Didn't catch it early enough to delete it and repost.
calumnus
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Congrats to the team on the win! Go Bears!
HoopDreams
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good Coach brought Brown to the post game

one of his best games as a Bear
4thGenCal
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HoopDreams said:

good Coach brought Brown to the post game

one of his best games as a Bear
Totally agree - Brown was outstanding at both ends and his effort level continues to be very high. He impacted the game defensively with limiting their guard shooting and penetrating to the hoop. Posters have at times been overly critical of his play (and yes on poor FT %), only fair to acknowledge his overall play. Sometimes he is unselfish to a fault on passing up open shots and or not using a floater, versus taking the ball all the way to the hoop. Team clearly is hesitant when He is out for brief rest periods.
HoopDreams
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4thGenCal said:

HoopDreams said:

good Coach brought Brown to the post game

one of his best games as a Bear
Totally agree - Brown was outstanding at both ends and his effort level continues to be very high. He impacted the game defensively with limiting their guard shooting and penetrating to the hoop. Posters have at times been overly critical of his play (and yes on poor FT %), only fair to acknowledge his overall play. Sometimes he is unselfish to a fault on passing up open shots and or not using a floater, versus taking the ball all the way to the hoop. Team clearly is hesitant when He is out for brief rest periods.
yeah, the players respect what Brown brings to the team, and as I said in a different post, I like how he plays within his role
KoreAmBear
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MoragaBear said:

Doh! Didn't catch it early enough to delete it and repost.


I like it Cal is the ultimate antibody! Happy for the W.
KoreAmBear
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4thGenCal said:

HoopDreams said:

good Coach brought Brown to the post game

one of his best games as a Bear
Totally agree - Brown was outstanding at both ends and his effort level continues to be very high. He impacted the game defensively with limiting their guard shooting and penetrating to the hoop. Posters have at times been overly critical of his play (and yes on poor FT %), only fair to acknowledge his overall play. Sometimes he is unselfish to a fault on passing up open shots and or not using a floater, versus taking the ball all the way to the hoop. Team clearly is hesitant when He is out for brief rest periods.


Yes I love it when he is aggressive on offense, and it's clearly needed. He's been too deferential at times which I think defenders expect so when Joel gets going it opens things up for others. And dude is a humble, high character guy.
calbearinamaze
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GO BEARS!!!! (Ground the T-Birds)
If you believe in forever
Then life is just a one-night stand
If there's a rock and roll heaven
Well you know they've got a hell of a band
SpecSlayer
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The listed attendance was 421. I don't care if we won or lost, there's clearly no enthusiasm around the program and Fox needs to go.
KoreAmBear
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SpecSlayer said:

The listed attendance was 421. I don't care if we won or lost, there's clearly no enthusiasm around the program and Fox needs to go.
I mean don't we normally overshoot actual attendance? Was it that bad?
MoragaBear
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Staff
It really didn't seem that low to me at the game. I have a hard time believing that few people could make the nosie they did, too. Could be just another reporting glitch after all the trouble they had with Statcast last night, too.
KoreAmBear
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MoragaBear said:

It really didn't seem that low to me at the game. I have a hard time believing that few people could make the nosie they did, too. Could be just another reporting glitch after all the trouble they had with Statcast last night, too.
The student section kind of looked crowded.
BeachedBear
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KoreAmBear said:

MoragaBear said:

It really didn't seem that low to me at the game. I have a hard time believing that few people could make the nosie they did, too. Could be just another reporting glitch after all the trouble they had with Statcast last night, too.
The student section kind of looked crowded.
Three's a crowd!!!
smh
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KoreAmBear said:

MoragaBear said:

It really didn't seem that low to me at the game. I have a hard time believing that few people could make the nosie they did, too. Could be just another reporting glitch after all the trouble they had with Statcast last night, too.
The student section kind of looked crowded.
surre, after the 3 courtside sections got downsized to about 30 kids each. also the band isn't ever allowed on the court, banished to the 2nd level southern end, and rarely play # covid rules
KoreAmBear
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smh said:

KoreAmBear said:

MoragaBear said:

It really didn't seem that low to me at the game. I have a hard time believing that few people could make the nosie they did, too. Could be just another reporting glitch after all the trouble they had with Statcast last night, too.
The student section kind of looked crowded.
surre, after the 3 courtside sections got downsized to about 30 kids each. also the band isn't ever allowed on the court, banished to the 2nd level southern end, and rarely play # covid rules
Ah depressing. Hope all is well Jay! Are you going to The Big Game?
smh
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KoreAmBear said:

smh said:

KoreAmBear said:

MoragaBear said:

It really didn't seem that low to me at the game. I have a hard time believing that few people could make the nosie they did, too. Could be just another reporting glitch after all the trouble they had with Statcast last night, too.
The student section kind of looked crowded.
surre, after the 3 courtside sections got downsized to about 30 kids each. also the band isn't ever allowed on the court, banished to the 2nd level southern end, and rarely play # covid rules
Ah depressing. Hope all is well Jay! Are you going to The Big Game?
nearly, until family thanksgiving plans/covid-avoidance clashed. mahalo kab
oskidunker
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smh said:

KoreAmBear said:

MoragaBear said:

It really didn't seem that low to me at the game. I have a hard time believing that few people could make the nosie they did, too. Could be just another reporting glitch after all the trouble they had with Statcast last night, too.
The student section kind of looked crowded.
surre, after the 3 courtside sections got downsized to about 30 kids each. also the band isn't ever allowed on the court, banished to the 2nd level southern end, and rarely play # covid rules
Ithought the band played a lot compared to football.
Go Bears!
SFCityBear
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4thGenCal said:

HoopDreams said:

good Coach brought Brown to the post game

one of his best games as a Bear
Totally agree - Brown was outstanding at both ends and his effort level continues to be very high. He impacted the game defensively with limiting their guard shooting and penetrating to the hoop. Posters have at times been overly critical of his play (and yes on poor FT %), only fair to acknowledge his overall play. Sometimes he is unselfish to a fault on passing up open shots and or not using a floater, versus taking the ball all the way to the hoop. Team clearly is hesitant when He is out for brief rest periods.
I did attend the UCSD game, but did not see this one. I would caution not to get overly excited about one good game. We Cal fans are so starved for something positive to say, but it is too early in the season to make much of either game in my opinion. When we are 5 or 10 games in, we can judge better. You write that Brown is sometimes unselfish to a fault, but there is more than one way to be unselfish. One is to be unselfish by setting up teammates for open shots, or spotting the open man, or just doing nothing productive with the ball. The latter is what I saw in the UCSD game. Brown's only positive plays on offense were to take the ball himself to the basket, and only half of those were successful. I watched him closely and I can't remember a time when he looked to set anyone up, or spotted someone open and gave him the ball. I may have missed it, but I never saw him look for anyone open. When a player calls his own number too many times, his teammates will react by not trying to get open, knowing they are not likely to get the ball. "Why should I work so hard, if I'm not likely to get the ball?" is what they will be thinking.

On the other hand, vs UCSD, perhaps the players were lazy, and not moving without the ball, which may be why Brown decided to take it to the basket. In any case, Brown had a good game this time, so obviously he is capable of finding teammates and/or setting them up, with 7 assists. My guess is that Fox or one of Fox's assistants may have spoken to Brown and/or the teammates who were not moving in the UCSD game, so the coaching should get some credit for the turnaround in Cal's style of play. Brown's 7 assists is a big improvement over the UCSD game, where Brown played 36 minutes and did not get a single assist. I hope they can continue with this style of play.
SFCityBear
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