Bears Come Back For 81-73 Win Over OSU

BERKELEY - In a reversal of fortunes, a cold Bears team and a scorching-hot OSU traded places in the second half as the Bears came on strong at the end to roll to an 81-73 win at Haas Pavilion.

The first half saw the Beavers hitting every perimeter shot in sight while the Bears struggled from deep but the home team caught fire in the second half, finishing up with a program record-tying 16 3’s for the game with an impressive 48.5% (16-for-33) from the perimeter for the game.

“Our guys shot it well tonight and that was really great to see because the hard work is paying off,” head coach Mark Madsen said after the game. 15 points for Jalen Celestin. The two steals and two dunks in a row. That was phenomenal. I told my guys in the locker room, I’ve never seen a sequence like that in all my years of playing and coaching basketball.

“A lot of guys stepped up and I thought that sequence really changed the momentum of the game.”

The Bears were led by center Fardaws Aimaq with 21 points and 11 rebounds (11-for-14 from the line), including a pair of 3’s. The Bears also got 3’s from Cone (5), Celestine (3), Kennedy (3), Newell (2) and Tyson (1). 

After scoring the first bucket of the game, the Bears struggled throughout the first half on both ends of the floor before a sparse crowd of 3,012 at Haas Pavilion. 

At one point, the Bears were just 3-for-9 from the field and 1-for-5 from 3 while OSU scorched the nets to the tune of 9-for-13 from the field and 7-of-9 from 3, taking an early 11-point lead midway through the first half. The Bears put a couple mini runs in with back-to-back 3’s from Keonte Kennedy and Jalen Celestine then later with center Fardaws Aimaq doing the same but each time, the Beavers answered back, taking a 9-point lead into the locker room at half.

The Bears picked up their intensity in the second half, getting a pair of 3’s in the opening minutes from Jalen Cone and Kennedy to narrow OSU’s lead to 5 three minutes into the half but the Beavers answered right back with a driving Jordan Pope bucket and the and-1 to push their lead back to 8, 50-42 with 15:48 remaining.

After the 3-point play, Celestine went to work, sinking a pair of free throws then stealing the ball and slamming it home on two straight possessions to pull the Bears to within 2 at 50-48. The six Celestine points all occurred in a span of just 46 seconds to rally the Bears.

OSU put the breaks on the Cal run with a Michal Rataj 3 from the top of the key and a pair of Pope and Rataj buckets to quickly extend their lead back to 9 before a Cone 3 stopped the run. After a Rataj layup, the Bears went on an 8-0 run on a pair of Grant Newell and Cone 3’s sandwiched around a breakaway Aimaq layup to tie the game for the first time since the opening minutes. A Pope 3 followed by a pair of Aimaq free throws and another Cone trey gave the Bears the 64-62 lead with 8:58 remaining.

The Bears’ lead didn’t last long as a pair of Pope jumpers and a Tyler Bilodeaux 3 keyed a 7-point OSU run to take a 71-66 lead with 5:35 remaining. A Celestine 3 and a pair of Cone free throws quickly knotted up the game again with 4 minutes remaining in the back-and-forth game then Celestine and Cone 3s gave the Bears back the lead for good at 77-71 with 3:02 left with an 11-0 run of their own.

With the Bears holding a 4-point lead with the clock ticking down below the 1-minute mark, OSU was the beneficiary of a controversial goaltending call on an impressive Jaylon Tyson block to narrow the Bears’ lead to 2 but the call was overturned. OSU retained the ball on possession. The Bears forced a turnover and came back with an Aimaq jumper to stretch the lead to 6 with 19 seconds remaining. A stop on the defensive end and a pair of Aimaq free throws wrapped up the scoring as the Bears closed out their improbable 8-point victory to move to .500 in Pac-12 play at 8-8 and 12-15 overall. OSU dropped to 3-13 and 11-16 overall for the season.

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