Cal Comes Up Short At Colorado

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) – Tristan da Silva scored 20 points, Colorado leaned hard on its reserves and the Buffaloes staved off a season sweep against California by beating the Golden Bears 59-46 on Thursday night.

Kuany Kuany was the lone Bear with double-figure points, scoring 10 to go along with four rebounds. Grant Newell totaled eight points and a team-high six rebounds while Lars Thiemann added seven points and four boards. Cal (3-19, 2-9 Pac-12) was without guards Devin Askew – who underwent season-ending surgery on a sports hernia on Wednesday – and DeJuan Clayton (illness) in the defeat.

Da Silva and KJ Simpson were the only Colorado (13-11, 5-8) starters to score for the Buffs in the first 30 minutes of play until 7-foot-1 center Lawson Lovering buried a jumper with 9:43 remaining. Simpson had 10 points and the bench scored 25 – led by nine points each from Jalen Gabbidon and Luke O'Brien.

The Bears turned it over 22 times and committed 22 personal fouls. Despite that, Cal controlled the first half and built a 27-17 lead on a pair of Joel Brown foul shots with 2:38 left. Colorado closed the half with a 7-0 run and used runs of 13-0 and 11-0 in the second half to clinch the win.

UP NEXT

The Bears’ road trip to the mountain schools concludes at Utah on Sunday, Feb. 5. Tipoff from the Jon M. Huntsman Center is at 3 p.m. PST on ESPNU.