BERKELEY - The Cal Golden Bears beat the CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners 87-60 at Haas Pavilion on Monday night to open the season in fairly impressive fashion.
Coach Mark Madsen’s starting five featured four upperclassmen- senior Lee Dort, senior Chris Bell, graduate student John Camden and junior Dai Dai Ames- alongside sophomore Justin Pippen. The Bears leaped out to a 10-0 lead just four minutes into the contest thanks in no small part to Dort and Camden.
Dort came up with two critical offensive boards early to give Cal some extra looks and Camden sank a three for his first basket of the season.
From there, the teams traded buckets before the majority of the second team was subbed in around the 14 minute mark in the first half, save for Pippen. Pippen helped facilitate and score for the second unit, soaring to the rack for an acrobatic finish and dishing to Ilic for an easy lay-in.
That said, the second team had some defensive issues as the Roadrunners were able to string together a 10-0 run to bring them within four. That was short-lived, however, as Camden capitalized on a poor close out by the Roadrunners for a four point play, giving the Bears a 22-16 advantage going into the under 8 timeout. With the momentum and a narrow lead, Cal was able to tighten up on the defensive end and convert steals into points. Justin Pippen stole an errant crosscourt pass for an easy lay-up and the Bears kept their foot on the gas to close out the half. The Bears headed to the locker room up 37-26.
Despite some brief issues in transition, the Bears defense was much improved from last season. They forced 10 turnovers and held the Roadrunners to just 36 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes.
The defensive intensity carried through into the second half with the Bears forcing three turnovers in the first two and a half minutes, resulting in a slashing Dort dunk and a Camden breakaway slam to push the Bear lead to 20.
“I worked on my body in the offseason. I dropped a little weight and felt like I needed to get in better shape,” Dort said during the post game press conference.
The offseason work paid off as he got to the free throw line early and often (5-6 on the night) while helping the Bears convert turnovers into points.
The staunch defense helped start the Cal fastbreak and get to the line. In total, the Bears scored 22 points off 17 Roadrunners turnovers and shot 72 percent on 25 attempts from the charity strike. Ames, Camden, Dort and Pippen came up huge in the second half. Ames scored eight of 11 points during an extended Cal run. He finished strong at the rim, showed excellent decision making with his lefty floater and used his mid-range precision to pick apart the Runners defense.
Similarly, John Camden (22 points, 7-11 from the field, 3-7 from deep) proved to be a versatile offensive weapon. Two consecutive possessions, Camden helped break the Runners’ zone with a high post flash and a quick turnaround mid-range.
“It was a lot of fun, playing out there. All my teammates had confidence, coach had confidence in me, so it was a great first night. I think we were all ready to kick things off and stop beating each other up in practice and go against someone else. It was a lot of fun,” Camden said of his first home game at Haas Pavilion.
Dort took it to the Roadrunners inside to start the second half with the aforementioned dunk and two physical layups inside. Defensively, he challenged the Roadrunner’s slashing guards at the hoop. Beyond just that, Dort was able to leverage his finishing ability for four assists, one of which was a beautiful cross court pass to East Bay native Chris Bell for a three that all but clinched the win.
“There’s probably not a player I could be more proud of than Lee Dort. He started last year, I think he started a game against SMU but he was playing behind a pro ... and every time he was called on he did great. Now over the summer, he changed his body. He changed his nutrition, he got in the gym even more than he’d been doing. He has an unbelievable work ethic. Four assists and one turnover, that shows how unselfish he is. Lee really impacted the game in a huge way,” Coach Mark Madsen said in the post game press conference.
The Bears’ ball movement was impressive on Monday night, with 20 assists total, led by Pippen’s seven.
Critically, the Bears shot poorly from three (just 22 percent) thus the assists are indicative of players swinging to the open cutter and moving well without the ball.
“It was great to see in the first game, where we didn’t even shoot the ball well from three, to get 20 assists. That’s not going to happen every night but you can see the unselfishness, the desire from people to want to make each other better,” Madsen said post game.
Pippen was stellar in his 35 minutes (most of any Bears player). He had 15 points on 50 percent from the field, seven assists, one steal and one block. He showed remarkable poise for a sophomore, taking charge with the second unit and setting up his teammates for great looks both on the break and in half-court possessions.
While the Runners put together a short-lived offensive burst, it proved too little too late as Cal’s lead didn’t dip below double digits at all in the second half in the 27-point win
The only point of serious improvement needed offensively was the three-point shooting but the shots were there thanks to impeccable ball movement and unselfish play. Defensively, Coach Madsen noted that transition defense needs some work but was happy with the improvement from last season.
“I thought our transition defense was not good. we made some mental mistakes, there were some turnovers that were careless that lead to points for Bakersfield so there’s a lot of things to tighten up and we’ll break down the film tonight but there was improvement. I’m hopeful that it’s below a 1 PPP,” Madsen said.
Madsen’s hopes were achieved as the Bears held the Roadrunners to a .857 Points Per Possession (PPP).
To close out the opening press conference of the season, Madsen shouted out his wife for her support throughout the off season.
With limited exception, the Bears looked dominant in the second half, forcing a total of 16 turnovers and holding the Runners to 36 percent from the field. Thirty of Cal’s 50 points in the paint came in the second
and the Golden Bears slammed three dunks early in the period to set the tone.
“We just have to keep doing what we’re doing, keep moving in the right direction,” Dort said.
Pippen’s NBA legend father, Scottie was in attendance tonight at Haas to take in his son’s Cal debut.
The Bears will next take the court on Thursday at 7 pm vs. Wright State in Haas Pavilion.
