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.
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 said:
good Coach brought Brown to the post game
one of his best games as a Bear
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 role4thGenCal said: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 said:
good Coach brought Brown to the post game
one of his best games as a Bear
MoragaBear said:
Doh! Didn't catch it early enough to delete it and repost.
4thGenCal said: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 said:
good Coach brought Brown to the post game
one of his best games as a Bear
I mean don't we normally overshoot actual attendance? Was it that bad?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.
The student section kind of looked crowded.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.
Three's a crowd!!!KoreAmBear said:The student section kind of looked crowded.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.
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 rulesKoreAmBear said:The student section kind of looked crowded.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.
Ah depressing. Hope all is well Jay! Are you going to The Big Game?smh said: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 rulesKoreAmBear said:The student section kind of looked crowded.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.
nearly, until family thanksgiving plans/covid-avoidance clashed. mahalo kabKoreAmBear said:Ah depressing. Hope all is well Jay! Are you going to The Big Game?smh said: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 rulesKoreAmBear said:The student section kind of looked crowded.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.
Ithought the band played a lot compared to football.smh said: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 rulesKoreAmBear said:The student section kind of looked crowded.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.
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.4thGenCal said: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 said:
good Coach brought Brown to the post game
one of his best games as a Bear
