BERKELEY - The Bears shook off some early finals week rust to easily handle visiting Morgan State Friday night in Haas Pavilion, 97-50.
The Bears were without three of their rotational players, with PG Justin Pippen out for the second straight game as well as forward Rytis Petraitis and guard DJ Campbell but the thin bench didn’t hamper the now 11-1 Bears in the slightest.
Cal shot a scorching 59% from the floor and 55% from 3, going 11-for-20 from the perimeter. Point guard Semetri Carr had the best game of his career, going for 20 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists and 3 steals with just 1 turnover in the win.
“Definitely,” Carr said when asked if his confidence is continuing to grow. “I mean, the coaches are trusting me more. So just being out there, being aggressive and playing with ball discipline. Whatever it takes for the team to win, trying to do everything, whether scoring, getting teammates involved, defense, just whatever gets a win at the end of the day.”
Wing Chris Bell was outstanding as well, going 8-for-11 from the field and 4-for-6 from 3 as well as 8-for-8 from the line to go for a season-high 28 points. Senior forward John Camden had another strong game, going 7-for-11 from the floor and 4-for-6 from 3 to score 20 as well as hauling in 8 rebounds in the game.
The Bears were strong on the defensive end all game as well, limiting the visiting Bears to 35.8% from the floor and just 1-of-17 from 3 while forcing 14 turnovers and outrebounding Morgan State, 36-24.
The Bears led just 5-2 nearly six minutes into the game until Bell hit a pair of free throws followed by a 3-pointer and an Ames jumper to put the Bears up 12-2 with 13:32 left in the half. Bell’s 13 first half points were a welcome sign for the Bears as the Syracuse transfer who had several good games early in the season had tailed off of late.
“I think my teammates found me, and I was just being aggressive in my spot,” Bell said after the game. “I felt like today, we played really good defense and it got us to run.”
“I think the message that we talk about is play to your potential,” head coach Mark Madsen said after the game. “Give Morgan State credit. They came out in the second half with momentum and then our guys really locked in and started playing defense much better and started sharing the ball so that was good to see.”
Center Lee Dort had a strong first half, scoring 12 points on 5-of-6 from the field and 2-for-2 from the line along with 6 rebounds.
The first half lead climbed to 27 after a 17-4 run capped off by 7 straight points to end the half with the Bears up 50-23 on a Camden 3, an Ilic layup and a pair of free throws by Carr, who got his second start of his young career.
Morgan State was able to trim the Bears’ lead to 20 after a pair of free throws and a Christian Oliver 3-pointer at 54-34 with 15:04 left in the game but the Bears got things rolling again soon after, eventually pushing their lead to 35 on a 3-point play by Bell followed by a Bell baseline trey with 9:06 remaining, going up 74-39.
Not content to sit on a big lead, the Bears kepushing on both ends of the floor, scoring another 9 straight points capped by a Bell 3 to go up 42 with 6:40 left and eventually to their 47-point winning margin.
The Bears will next face a tough 9-2 Columbia team at 2:00 in Haas Pavilion Sunday afternoon.
Additional Notes:
Madsen was non-commital on the nature of Petraitis, Pippen and Campbell’s injuries and when they might return. When asked if frosh guard Jovani Ruff could potentially give up his redshirt and play if the team continued to struggle with injuries, Madsen noted they wouldn’t rule it out.
“I think everything is always under consideration, especially with a guy like Jovani,” Madsen said. “Jovani has a specific skillset. Nobody can stay in front of Jovani. He has a tight handle on the ball. So I would say that everything is always under evaluation as it relates to that.”
Madsen was also asked after the game if the Bears’ 10-1 start with the staff out recruiting this week and win over 18th-ranked UCLA has opened some doors with high-level recruits this season.
“Absolutely,” Madsen noted. “We’ve had a lot of inbound to Cal in terms of top players. And then as we go outbound to really top guys, the reception is very, very positive and very favorable towards Cal.
“I can’t go into too much recruiting-wise but there’s a lot of good things happening. And you’ve seen the caliber of players we’ve signed here over the last 12 to 18 months and pretty recently so there’s a lot of excitement with the recruits.”
That was a definitive win. Columbia will present a tougher match-up than we might think. It hasn't been pretty and some key players are hurt, but through it all this team is 11-1! That's pretty salty, and a testament to Mark Madsen's coaching as well as the acumen and resilience of the backups, who, BTW, are logging invaluable minutes. This element should be a factor in conference play. We'll see what's what soon enough, & we've gotta get everyone healthy.
Hope we fill up those stands, these kids sure deserve it.
