Bears Alone Atop ACC After 74-56 Win Over Columbia

BERKELEY - The Bears wrapped up their best non-conference schedule with an impressive 74-56 victory in front of 3,283 fans over a solid Columbia squad that came into Haas Pavilion with a 9-2 record. The win left the Bears alone atop the ACC with a 12-1 record after Duke’s first loss of the season on Saturday left them with an 11-1 record.

The Bears were led by guard Dai Dai Ames‍ with 21 points along with forward John Camden‍ with 15, including three 3’s and center Lee Dort with a career-high 14 rebounds. The win was keyed by a strong Cal defense that forced the Lions into 15 turnovers while giving up just 6. A big 19-6 advantage from the free throw line was also instrumental in the Bears’ win

“Dai Dai Ames was just up here,” Cal head coach Mark Madsen said after the game. “After we had a tough loss at Kansas State, Dai Dai came to me and said we still have a great opportunity to go up against a Big-12 team and a Big-10 team - UCLA and Utah. Dai Dai is someone who has such great confidence and is such a great leader on this team and in the locker room.”

The Bears held a strong shooting Columbia team to a pedestrian 42% from the floor with their combination of tough ball defense, altering shots throughout the game and forcing turnovers.

“That’s the transformation that we’ve been trying to make,” Madsen said. “We wanted to take a big step defensively from last year to this year. And there’s progress but there’s so much room for improvement.”

The first half was a low-scoring affair where both teams struggled to convert what were often fairly good shot opportunities. Seldom will a team who shot 25% from the field and 2-of-12 from the perimeter hold a double digit lead on a solid team at the halfway point of a game but that’s exactly what the Bears did with a combination of aggressive defense and a strong focus on Columbia’s top player, guard Kenny Noland, who came into the game averaging 17.7 points on 47% shooting from the floor and 40% from 3. Noland was held scoreless in the first half, going 0-for-7 along with 3 turnovers. The Bears forced a total of 12 turnovers in the half while giving up just 1.

Though not scoring much, the Bears jumped out to an early 17-4 lead in the first 10 minutes. Forward John Camden‍ got the scoring started with an opening 3. After the Lions tied it at 4 five minutes in, Ames got the Bears jumpstarted with a steal and an athletic one-handed jam in traffic to start a 13-0 run that was capped by a Bell bucket and layup. A Connor Igoe layup momentarily got the Cal lead down to single digits but a pair of free throws by center Lee Dort as well as Ames and Bell gave the Bears their 28-16 halftime lead.

Columbia whittled the Bears’ lead down to 9 at 35-26 four minutes into the second half on a Mason Ritter dunk but the Bears got things rolling from there with a 21-9 run that put Cal up 21 at 56-35 with 9:27 remaining. The run was started and capped by Camden 3’s. Camden’s second trey followed the first triple of the game for guard Justin Pippen, who came back from several games on the bench with back spasms. The soph guard hit his second straight 3 minutes later. Pippen was held scoreless in the first half but heated up in the second stanza and finished with 8 points and 5 assists in the win.

The Lions stepped up the defensive pressure and pulled to within 13 on a Sanders jumper and an Igoe bucket and-1 but an Ames corner 3 and six free throws by Camden, Ames and Carr when Columia was forced to foul late in the game closed out the scoring in the Bears’ 18-point win.

Cal will next take the floor in their conference opener against #11 Louisville at 6 pm at Haas Pavilion.

Bear Insider

ACC standings as of 12/21/25