Bears Pull Off Stirring Comeback Win to Defeat Notre Dame, 72-71

BERKELEY - It didn’t look pretty early but the Bears erased an early deficit, fell behind again late then staged a stirring comeback victory keyed by seven Dai Dai Ames‍ points in the closing seconds to steal a 72-71 win over Notre Dame in front of a boistrous crowd of 5,158 at Haas Pavilion Friday night.

“That's a close game,” Cal head coach Mark Madsen said after the game. “Could have gone either way. Two good teams battling, fighting. Nothing but respect for Notre Dame, for Coach Shrewsberry. They played a great game. I thought we played a great game. An absolute battle. Dai Dai Ames stepped up and made some huge plays. A lot of our guys stepped up and made huge twists. So did theirs.”

Ames led all scorers with 23 on 9-for-16 shooting. The Bears also got 11 boards from center Lee Dort, 15 from wing Chris Bell‍ and 14 from guard Justin Pippen‍, who also had 4 boards, 3 assists, a steal and no turnovers on the night. Forward Milos Ilic‍ had a season high 7 points on 3-for-4 shooting and picked up 4 rebounds on the night in his best game of the season.

After an encouraging non-conference 12-1 start that included a win over #18 UCLA and Utah as well as an 18-point win over a solid Columbia team, the Bears’ 20-point ACC opening loss to Louisville was a rude awakening on Wednesday, particularly after the Cardinals were upset by Stanford tonight.

The way much of the first half played out started to look like things could go seriously sideways with three or potentially four ranked opponents next on the schedule in the upcoming four games as Notre Dame got out to a 12-point lead halfway throught the first half as they continually failed to rotate to cover the corner three and perimeter in general and threw up a selection of clunkers on the offensive end. At one point, center Lee Dort missed four straight 2-footers before finally converting. Normally harpshooting forward John Camden‍ hit the side of the backboard on a shot along with another airball while going 0-5 from 3 in the first half.

Rough start aside, the Bears scrapped and clawed and managed to cut the Irish deficit to four on a final seconds three from point guard Semetri Carr‍ to finish the half down 31-27 despite going just 3-for-17 from the arc and just 32% overall from the floor while only forcing one turnover on D.

The second half started strong with a quick bucket from Dort. A minute later, an Ames‍ three knotted the game at 32. At the 14:13 mark, a three from Pippen gave the Bears their first lead since the opening minutes, 44-42. After getting a defensive stop, a Bell jumper put the Bears up four, 46-42. Minutes later, a Bell three put the Bears up five, 49-44 with 11:30 left.

After a Braeden Shrewsbury three momentarily cut the Bears lead to 2, Camden finally hit a bucket, converting a three from the top of the arc to push the Bears lead back to five with 9:19 remaining. After another Shrewsbury three, a Carr trey and and breakaway jam by Bell extended the lead to 7 at 61-54 minutes later.

At that point, the Cal offense went cold as they struggled to get off quality shots and Notre Dame rallied to retake the lead 65-63 with 3:10 left after a 7-0 run capped by back-to-back Cole Cerda threes. A pair of free throws from Haralson and Cerda extended Notre Dame’s lead to 4 before the Bears finally ended a five minute scoring drought on a Camden runner to pull to within two with :19 left.

With the Bears forced to foul, Shrewsberry hit a pair of three throws to extend their lead again to four and the Bears answered with an Ames’ 3 with :11 left to narrow the deficit to one. After fouling again, Shrewsberry hit another pair of free throws to retake a three point lead. Hurrying up the court as the clock ticked down, Ames hit another dagger three on an off-balance shot from the wing where he was fouled. The veteran guard calmly sank the free throw with five seconds remaining to put the Bears back in the lead, 72-71

After advancing the ball to the front court, the Irish called timeout and attempted to get off a game-winning shot but Shrewsbury’s 3-point attempt rimmed out, sealing the stirring comeback win for the Bears.

“So far, I've been part of one or two or three games like this on both sides,” Madsen said after the game. “I've been part of the winning side. I've been part of the side where it doesn't go your way. And that's why I just want to be clear, to just reiterate tremendous respect for Coach Shrewsbury, for the entire Notre Dame program. You know, it was emotional for all of us in the handshake line. It was nothing but class. Class act.”

Cal moves to 13-2 (1-1) on the season and will take to the road to face Virginia on Wednesday on their first conference road trip of the season and only their second time on the road.