Ames and Pippen Lead Bears in 79-72 Victory Over Utah

BERKELEY - It was a reunion of two former Pac-12 teams - the second time in a week - and just like last week’s win over UCLA, the Bears swept their former conference foes with a 79-72 victory over Utah at Haas Pavilion Tuesday night, moving to 7-1 on the season.

“That’s a really good Utah team,” head coach Mark Madsen said after the game. They’re coming off a decisive win over Ole Miss at a neutral site. We knew it was going to be a dogfight and it was.

“I was really proud of our guys.”

The Bears were led by guard Dai Dai Ames‍, who put the team on his back with 25 points on 9-for-14 shooting from the floor and a perfect 7-for-7 from the line in the Bears’ win. Point guard Justin Pippen‍ was also key in the win, coming up with maybe the best game of his young career with 23 points, including 3-of-7 from 3. Center Lee Dort‍ led the team in +/- with +18 along with 8 points, 11 rebounds and 3 assists while staying on the court with 3 total fouls on the night. The Bears shot a stellar 22-of-24 from the line in the win.

After a solid start keyed by Ames‍ scoring 7 of the Bears’ first 10 points to give the Bears an early 10-7 lead, the home team hit a stretch where they couldn’t buy a bucket down low, missing a procession of layups, putbacks and 3-footers. Utah capitalized to go on an 18-7 run to take a 25-17 lead with 8:50 remaining in the half.

The Bears’ defense clamped down from there, holding Utah without a basket for a 5:17 stretch, gradually building their lead to an 8-point margin, finishing the half on a 7-0 run on a Pippen‍ 3, a Lee Dort dunk and an Ames layup, sending them into the half with a 42-34 lead.

The Bears came out a little sloppy on defense to start the second half, giving up a pair of open three’s by Utah guard Don McHenry along with a couple layups as the Utes whittled their deficit to 2 in the opening minutes of the second stanza, 50-48.

A pair of sloppy passes on the offensive end led to a fast break layup and 3 by Utah guard Jacob Patrick that kept things tight.

A pair layups by Pippen and Ames pushed the lead to 6 at the 6-minute mark and minutes later, layups by Pippen and Dort pushed the lead to 9 but the Bears were in for a dogfight from there as Utah continued to chip away at the lead as the Bears were unable to establish any offensive continuity, while giving up some easy buckets in the paint.

A layup by Patrick and a pair of free throws by Dawes whittled the Bears’ lead to just 2 with 4:10 remaining but the Cal defense stiffened up from there, allowing just one bucket till the closing seconds while closing it out with five straight free throws till a late Ute layup and a pair of Ames free throws closed out the scoring in the Bears’ 79-72 win.

The Bears will next take the court Saturday at 2 vs. Pacific in Haas Pavilion in the second of an 8-game homestand to close out the non-conference schedule.