Bears Upset #18 UCLA, 80-72 at Chase Center in Empire Classic

CHASE CENTER - The California Golden Bears upset the UCLA Bruins on Tuesday night at Chase Center in San Francisco for the final game of the Empire Classic, 80-72.

Coach Mark “Mad Dog” Madsen has been starting Dai Dai Ames and Justin Pippen in the backcourt with John Camden and Chris Bell at stretch and Lee Dort battling down low. Madsen continued that trend at Chase Center on Tuesday night. 

“Great players win big games, simple as that,” Madsen said in the post game press conference. 

The Bruins jumped out to an early lead, initially up 8-0 in the first five minutes before pushing the lead to 12-6. The early advantage was largely due to early offensive rebounds. The lead didn’t last though as Bears came storming back with a 14-0 run, eventually going up 20-12 with just over 12 minutes left in the first half. 

The offensive spark early came from Bell. He has been on a hot shooting streak lately and maintained the heat in San Francisco, starting 3-3 from the field and 3-3 from deep. Camden and freshman sub Semetri (TT) Carr both started 2-4 from the field, respectively, which helped the Cal offense. 

Rytis Petraitis again earned some early minutes and bolstered the defense on the perimeter and chipped in with four first half points. The Bears’ kept their hands in the passing lanes and secured four steals in the opening period, Pippen nabbed two himself.

As the first half wound down, the Bruins offense kept attacking the paint which proved moderately successful as they had 16 of their 41 first half points in the key. Both teams were relatively even in the major team stats, save for offensive rebounds which the Bruins bested the Bears 8-2. The Bruins also had nine points off five Bears’ turnovers and had 10 assists compared to the Bears’ eight. 

Cal shot decently well from the field (13-31) and from three (5-11) in the first half but the offensive rebound disparity gave the Bruins nine second chance points and UCLA led Cal 41-36 at halftime.

Despite trailing at the half, the Bears played well defensively, jumping out on screens, staying down on close outs and covering helpside well. Offensively, DJ Campbell, Petraitis and Carr added 14 off the bench to keep the offense active. 

“We had a lot of mistakes in the first half. In the second half, we just came out and executed the game plan,” Dai Dai Ames said in the post game press conference. 

Cal got out to a hot offensive start in the second half, opening with a Dort baby hook followed by an Ames mid-range jumper and a Camden block on the defensive end to narrow the Bruins’ lead to four. A Pippen three on the next possession cut the UCLA lead to just one. A Bruins’ layup followed by a Petraitis layup brought it to 46-45 with just over 15 minutes left in the game. 

Milos Ilic has been playing better off the bench as of late and the trend continued at Chase Center on Tuesday night. He had four rebounds and four assists and a steal. 

A stop and a five second violation gave the Bears an opening which Bell helped capitalize on with a three from the wing, putting Cal up 49-46. 

A subsequent burst from Pippen offensively, combined with some active and tenacious defense put the Bears up 56-48 with just under 13 minutes left in the game. As has been the case with Pippen often this season, his playmaking ability forced defenders into weak positioning which opened up his shot. 

Credit to the Bruins - they’re a tough team and fought to get back within five points, 58-53. The brief Bruins’ run was stifled by two Petraitis free throws as well as a Bell bucket in the fast break and from the corner for three that gave Cal its largest lead of the night, 65-53, with nine and a half minutes left in the game. 

Petraitis was marvelous off the bench in the second half. He had six points, three rebounds and an assist but more than just that were his hustle plays. Just ahead of the under eight timeout, the Bears’ secured a useful stop but the ball was loose following a midrange jumper. Petraitis dove and secured the ball for the Bears in what can best be described as a winning play. 

A long rebound out to Pippen led to a fast break which in turn led to an Ames three from the corner to put the Bears up 69-56. 

Again the Bruins fought back, getting a few stops and scores to draw it to 71-67 with about four minutes left.

The UCLA charge was mostly led by Jamar Brown and Eric Dailey Jr. who had six and 12 points in the second half respectively. 

And again Petraitis came up huge. He scored a tough lay-in out of the under four timeout and secured a physical rebound off a missed three on the other end with roughly two minutes to go.

A huge stepback three from Ames and a floater from the top of the key put the Bears up 80-70 with less than a minute to go. 

“Chris made a lot of shots in the first half and kind of opened the floor up for me. Him being him, I just started being me in the second half,” Ames said in the post game press conference. 

This was Cal’s toughest test to date. UCLA is a talented team with a lot of offensive options. Every time the Bears stretched the lead, the Bruins came clawing back. 

Both coaches - Madsen and UCLA’s Mick Cronin - noted the Bears’ energy after the game. Madsen keyed in on energy as one of the central, sweeping adjustments made in the offseason. 

“We talk a lot about energy... by three or four on gameday, all the hay is in the barn all the work has been done, all the preparation has been done and now it’s time to go out there and have great energy have great focus, communicate and try to execute what we’ve worked on for weeks,” Madsen said post-game. 

Cronin, visibly disappointed post-game, noted that the Bears’ energy was central to the win. 

Overall, this game was decided on the defense end and the halftime adjustments were critical. Petraitis had eight of his 12 in the second half. The Bears had just three turnovers compared to 12 assists in the second half and finished with just eight turnovers overall compared to the Bruins’ 11.

Chris Bell earned the Empire Classic Most Outstanding Player award and finished with 22 points and six rebounds. All of Ames' 14 points came in the second half and the team’s shooting percentage, both from the field and from three, improved in the second half. 

After the game, Bell noted the team’s confidence. 

“We feel like we’re one of the top teams in the country so when we play against anybody we want to come out and compete. We feel like against K State we didn’t show that in the first half so we wanted to come out against UCLA and play both halves and see what the outcome was and we got the win today.”