BERKELEY - The Bears lost a heartbreaker of a game Saturday afternoon - a game they had a chance to win when for much of the game, a win seemed an utter impossibility, falling to Virginia Tech, 71-68 at Haas Pavilion.
In a conference the Bears are struggling to gain traction, a home win over a 6-9 (1-3) Hokies squad was a necessity
"To start with, before I talk about basketball, there's two things I just want to address," head coach Mark Madsen said after the game. "Obviously, being a native Californian and really our whole university team, our thoughts and prayers are with the families, the individuals in Southern California that are affected by the wildfires. I lived, not in the Palisades, but close to that area, a lot of us know people there, so our thoughts and prayers are are with them at this time and hopeful that the fires get contained.
"The second point, our thoughts and prayers are with Mady Sissoku, who got a phone call early yesterday morning that his mother passed away. And we're just supporting him, and he is such an outstanding person, and he made the decision that he wanted to play tonight, and we respected that, and he's such a huge part of this team. Mady's mother is in Africa, and he's in the process of figuring out next steps in terms of the grieving process, whether or not he will travel, and still with that, he was such an outstanding part of the comeback in the second half. I was proud of him, and I was proud of our guys for rallying around him during a very difficult time the game itself.
“We had a horrible first half defensively, but especially offensively. I think it was our worst offensive half of the season. Our first 10 shots - 0-for-10 (actually 0-for-13), then it was 2-for-21 then it was 5-for-31. Give credit to Virginia Tech. They were very physical. They got us off our spots. We’ve got to make some other shots, too. We got to make some of those shots too. And we'll break down the film. We'll look to see what happened in the first half. I told the team in the locker room, when we get consistent, we're going to be special. We were very good in the second half. We were absolutely horrible in the first half in terms of basketball, and that's the reality.”
The Bears were once again led by guard Andrej Stojakovic, who tallied 24 points on 8-for-20 shooting in the loss. Only frosh guard Jeremiah Wilkinson scored in double digits besides Stojakovic, scoring 14 points and adding 6 rebounds.
The game got off to a miserable start for the Bears as VaTech seemingly frustrated their every move on the offensive end and they had trouble defending the Hokies thoughout much of the half as they shot a blistering 16-for-28 (61.5%) from the floor. The Bears shot a paltry 5-for-31 (16%) on their end of court overall in the first half and were outrebounded, 23-to-17.
The Hokies still held a still held a 21-point lead with 13:44 left when forward Mylyjael Poteat connected on a jumper in the paint to put them up 53-32 and things looked bleak for the Bears.
The Bears finally sprung to life with a 10-0 run and suddenly stifling defense with a jumper by DJ Campbell, a trey forward Josh Ola-Joseph, an and-1 from Stojakovic and a driving layup by Jeremiah Wilkinson to pull to within 11.
After both teams twice traded buckets, a jumper by guard Brandon Rechsteiner pushed the Hokies lead to 12 before the Bears went on another run, this time 12-0 to pull even at 58 with 6:03 remaining on an impressive Wilkinson wrap-around layup.
In the span of the next 2:20, the Hokies turned the tables on the Bears, going on a 9-0 run of their own to give themselves some breathing room, going up 67-58 with 3:41 remaining.
It looked like the Bears had run out of steam. The team, however, refused to die, with Stojakovic scoring six straight points -the last a breakaway dunk - to pull the Bears within three with 2:12 left.
With former Bears point guard Rodney Brown on the line with a chance to ice the game with nine seconds remaining, Brown missed the front end of the one-and-one and the Bears got the ball back on a travel call after the Hokies’ rebound.
Stojakovic had a chance to tie the game on a shot from deep after the inbounds pass as the clock neared zero but the ball barely rimmed out, sending the crowd of 4,003 home disappointed.
The Bears will now face a tough road trip this week to North Carolina to face the Tar Heels and Wolfpack and things will not get easier going forward.
“Our group has never had a hard time rallying,” Madsen said to wrap things up. “That's the truth. We've struggled with consistency. So our and my challenge, and we'll work very hard as a staff to make the tweaks, adjustments and drill work to grow and build our consistency.
“You can't take anything away from from Virginia Tech, because they came in here and played a great game and we did not. So it's learn from this, move on and take the lessons and build momentum.”
The Bears fell to 8-8 (1-4) in ACC play with the loss.
Biggest problem is no offensive plan. The so-called "pro" style is three guys stand around and your stud player plays high pick and roll. Doesn't work with these players. Does anyone ever pick off the ball? Defense is almost as bad: no team play. No doubling down, no help. These problems are lack of coaching. MM can do something about this, but will he?
