Bears Handle Virginia, 75-61

BERKELEY - It may have only been an early-season conference game but the Bears’ home matchup with an 8-6/1-2 Virginia squad was a must-win for a Bears squad looking for their first ACC win. And win they did, coming up with a 75-61 victory led by soph guard Andrej Stojakovic‍’s 23 points leading the way, with 11 of his points coming from the line. A stellar 27-for-33 overall mark from the line was perhaps the biggest factor in the Bears’ win.

The Bears struggled offensively in the first half, shooting just 40% from the field. Leading scorer Stojakovic scored just 4 first-half points on 1-for-5 shooting before stepping it up in the second half.

"The best teams I've been a part of as a player or a coach are player-led teams," head coach Mark Madsen said after the win. "This team is a player led team, and their work, their persistence, their diligence during a tough stretch, a tough stretch. We intentionally made our schedule very difficult because we want to play against the best so I was proud of our team and our players.”

The win not only saw the Bears get their first ACC win but it also stopped a struggling period with six losses in seven games, capped by a particularly rough defensive outing in the loss to Clemson last weekend but they got back on track on defense in the win tonight.

"We made some serious adjustments," Madsen noted.  And not going to go into the specifics of the adjustments, because every coach listens to every press conference to try to get information, but we made some adjustments, and our guys did a really good job of executing. The defense at Clemson was atrocious. It was horrible. And that's on me. And you know that these were painful film sessions, mostly for myself and for the staff, as we discussed a lot of these.

“Now look, Clemson and Pitt are really good teams. Clemson beat Kentucky. Clemson is one of the top teams in the league. Clemson presents you with dilemmas defensively, but we did a bad job. We got back on track a little bit tonight."

The first half was also a streaky affair. After point guard Jovan Blacksher‍ opened the game with a 3, the Cavs went on an 11-0 run to take an early 8-0 lead. The Bears answered with a 10-point run of their own to retake the lead with 12:15 left in the half, with 8 of the 10 points courtesy of frosh point guard Jeremiah Wilkinson‍.

The Bears took a 3-point lead into the locker room after an Andrew Rhode layup followed a Stojakovic trey, with the halftime score at 35-32.

New Cal frosh quarterback Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele‍ was in the house at Haas alongside new offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin and Cal point guard great Jerome Randle and was treated with enthusiastic applause by an appreciative Golden Bear crowd after the 5 star QB recommitted to Cal this week after a short stint at Oregon. Former Cal center Robert Thurman was also courtside taking in the game.

The Bears’ defense stepped up to force Virginia into bad shots and turnovers with a healthy dose of blocks by Cal center Mady Sissoko‍, who came down with three big swats in the first five minutes of the second stanza as the Bears extended their lead.

A Wilkinson layup capped a Bears’ 18-5 run to push the home team’s lead to 53-37 with 12:54 left in the half.

With the Bears leading by 14, Virginia finally got their deficit down to single digits, turning a Stojakovic travel and a Wilkinson turnover into five points on a bucket and a trey from forward Jacob Cofie to cut the Cal lead to 63-54 with 6:14 left in the game.

Bear Insider

New Cal OC Bryan Harsin and QB Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele

The game got a bit ugly from there as both teams struggled to get good shots and the Bears continued to milk the clock. The Bears closed it out with their final 14-point margin on a trio of free throws by Stojakovic and forward Joseph Ola-Joseph, who finished with 10 points and 7 rebounds in the win.\

The Bears were only able to muster just 6 assists in the game, continuing to rely on one-one-one opportunities, free throws and second-chance buckets in the win. 

Cal moves to 8-7/1-4 on the season and will next face 6-9/1-3 Virginia Tech at 3 pm at Haas Pavilion Saturday.