Bears Sting Hornets, 91-67

BERKELEY - After a bit of a slow start reminiscent of Cal’s early game struggles out of the gate in Tuesday’s game vs Presbyterian, the Bears roared to life on both ends of the court and rolled to an easy 91-67 win over Sacramento State in front of 4,295 fans Friday night at Haas Pavilion.

The Bears got strong contributions in the win from forward Chris Bell‍ (21 points on 7-11 from the field, three 3s), Dai Dai Ames‍ and Justin Pippen‍ with 16 points a piece with 9 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks combined and 14 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists from forward John Camden, who also went 4-10 from the arc.

The Bears played effective, efficient ball throughout most of the game, compiling 20 assists on 33 buckets while limiting their turnovers to 12 while shooting 48% from the field and 37% from 3.

“It was a hard fought game,” Cal head Coach Mark Madsen said after the game. “Proud of our guys. You know, it's good to see the 20 assists. We didn't have too many 20 assist games last year, and the ball was really moving, so that's that's good to see.

“A lot of guys are coming into new roles on this team. I thought Justin Pippin really played an outstanding game tonight. You know, we ask a lot of Justin because he can do so many things on the court and it's challenging to play the point guard position but he has been doing an outstanding job of it, finding the balance between being aggressive, involving teammates creating layups, dunks and open threes for his teammates. I thought he was really, really good tonight. You look at our guards defensively - Dai Dai, Justin, Chris and TT. They were outstanding, from ball screen coverage to one on one defense, contesting shots. They were really, good. That was great to see.”

The Hornets, who came into the game 3-3 with a narrow win over Presbyterian, came out strong, jumping out to a 9-5 early lead over the Bears after a trey from guard Mikey Williams (15 ppg) 3:42 into the game. After a Justin Pippen counter trey, Shaq O’Neal’s son Shaquir hit another 3 to push the Hornets’ lead back to 4 again a minute later.

The Bears woke up from there, going on a scintilating 17-0 run in the next four minutes with wing Chris Bell‍ leading the charge with 9 points in the run with a pair of free throws, a pair of dunks and a 3 to push the Bears lead to 24 to 12. A Prophet Johnson (16 ppg) jumper momentarily slowed the run before the Bears came back with a Semetri Carr‍ and a Rytis Petraitis layup along with a Petraitis 3 extended the Bears lead to 17 with 8:32 left in the half. The lead got as big as 23 on a Dai Dai Ames‍ jumper with 5:09 left in the half before Sac State turned things around for a 13-4 run to close the half.

The Bears took care the ball well in the first half with just 4 turnovers and had a 5 bucket advantage from behind the arc to build the lead. And though he was scoreless in the first half, center Milos Ilic‍ set his season high in rebounds with 7 at the break in 14 minutes on the court.

The Bears were again firing on all cylinders in the second half, coming out of the locker room with a John Camden‍ 3 and a Lee Dort dunk. The buckets paved the way for a 21-5 run to start the half, with the lead hitting 30 on a pair of Bell free throws with 13:48 remaining. At the 8:59 mark, the Bears took their biggest lead at 34 on another Camden 3, pushing the score to 81-47 over the outmatched Hornets.

As more of the starters saw the bench, the Hornets graduaally pared the Bears’ lead down to the final 24 point deficit at the final buzzer.

Sac State was led by guard Brandon Gardner with 19 points in the loss and fell to 3-4 on the season. The Bears moved to 5-1 and will next take the court against UCLA Tuesday night at 7 at the Chase Center in San Francisco. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN.