Bears Struggle to Defend, Fall 89-81 to Stanford
BERKELEY - It was not the way the Bears wanted to start their inaugural ACC season as Cal fell 89-81 to rival Stanford to open up conference play with an early game against the Cardinal.
The Bears were led in the defeat by wing Andrej Stojakovic with 25 on 11-for-25 from the floor along with center Mady Sissoko’s 10 points and 8 rebounds. Stanford center Maxime Reynaud and PG Jaylen Blakes with 20 a piece in their victory.
“We have to be more consistent as a team on both sides of the ball,” Madsen said after the loss. “We had stretches where there were to very problematic to start the game then to end the second half. You’re going to have other little ebbs and flows but those were glaring. We’ve got to make the extra pass and we did not do that tonight.”
The Bears had a season-low five assists in the loss, all coming in the second half. They won the rebounding battle 39-29 – including 20 offensive boards – and outgained Stanford 23-9 in second-chance points. Stanford finished the game at 52.6% shooting from the floor and 47.8% from beyond the arc (11 of 23).
Early indications proved to be accurate for the Bears as Stanford jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead, barely looking back except when occasionally briefly challenged.
The Cardinal’s 7-point lead gradually to 11 points as forward Tallis Toure hit a pair of free throws to put them up 24-13 before the Bears briefly found their legs, going on a 16-5 run to tie it on an Andrej Stojakovic layup at 29-all over the next five minutes.
It took all of 4:51 to push Stanford’s first-half lead even higher as a Jaylen Blakes layup with one second left gave the Cardinal a big 16-point lead heading into the locker room up 47-31.
The Bears had not a single assist in the half, while also going 0-for-7 from deep, giving Stanford a 21-point perimeter advantage.
The second half was more of the same as Stanford at one point extended their lead to 20, going up 77-57 with 5:37 remaining in the half after back-to-back Reynaud threes.
To their credit, the Bears dug in and rallied, going on a 20-6 run cut cut the deficit to 6 with 1:21 left after a Stojakovic trey but it was too little too late as the Cardinal staved off the late run to preserve the win to move to 7-2/1-0 for the season. The Bears fell to 6-3/0-1 after the defeat.
The Bears will next be back in action on Tuesday night at Haas Pavilion vs 5-3 Cornell at 7 pm.