Cal Clinches 'Huge' Conference Win Against SMU

The California Golden Bears beat the SMU Mustangs, 73-69, in a thrilling conference matchup at Haas Pavilion on Wednesday night. This was a pivotal matchup as both teams came in with comparable conference records and are battling for a spot in the ACC Tournament, which starts Thursday, March 10. 

Milos Ilic started along with the usual four of Justin Pippen and Dai Dai Ames in the backcourt as John Camden and Chris Bell held up the front court. Ilic started seven games as big man Lee Dort recovered. Thankfully, Dort did return to action against the Mustangs, to an excited and vocal crowd. Adding to the excitement, Cal’s football team and new head coach, Tosh Lupoi were in attendance. Their presence had a noticeable effect as the Mustangs went 11-26 from the charity strike. 

“Yeah it was great, I think that was the first time I saw them here. I definitely feel like they missed a lot of free throws,” Justin Pippen said of the crowd. 

Cal took an early lead thanks to a Pippen-assisted Camden bucket and a Bell three (he had 15 in the half to lead all scorers). Samet Yigitoglu, the sophomore SMU center, and Boopie Miller, the senior guard  scored the Mustangs’ first seven points. But the Cal offense, led by Bell’s shooting, won both the rebounding and assists battle in the first period. The Bears had eight offensive boards and nine assists. Defensively, the Bears got clogged passing lanes and came away with six first half steals. 

Dort, Nolan Dorsey, TT Carr, Mantas Kocanas and Sammie Yeanay all got some minutes in the first half.  Yeanay, driving baseline, found Kocanas under the hoop for a lay-in to give Cal its largest lead of the night, nine points, up to that point. 

Not to be run out of the gym, the Mustangs battled back with a few points from Miller (he led the Mustangs in scoring and went 2-2 in the first half) and a useful five points from freshman Jermaine O’Neal Jr. A Miller three with just over two minutes in the first gave the Mustangs their first lead, 31-30, of the game. 

Tenaciously, Cal put together a small run to close out the half with Pippen knocking one down from midrange then an electrifying Dort block at the rim led to a spinning Ames jumper from the free throw line.

A Pippen assist to Camden gave Cal a 36-33 lead to which the Mustangs responded with a lay-in. 

Pippen held the ball up top as the first half wound down, waiting for the last shot. A Camden down screen sent Dort up to the top of the arc for a pick and roll. Pippen, off the screen, pulled up from three. It bounced high off the rim, right into Dort’s outstretched fingers for a monster put back slam and the crowd erupted.

Cal led at the half 38-33. 

Dort was solid in the first half, battling defensively down low with Yigitoglu, finding a backdoor- cutting Bell and rebounding well. He had four points, six rebounds and was +7 in his 10 first half minutes. Beyond just that, the crowd at Haas Pavilion was eager for Dort’s return and it showed. That excitement bolstered Cal’s momentum as they recaptured the lead at the end of the first half. 

“I think he’s another key piece that we didn’t have so I think he’s a monster on the glass, a presence rolling to the glass on offense. I think he did a great job today,” Chris Bell said of Dort’s riveting return. 

The first ten minutes of the second half were tough for Cal. SMU retook the lead and pushed it to five at one point, earning several points off of offensive rebounds (the Mustangs had seven offensive boards in the first nine minutes of the second half). The Bears offense struggled to find the stroke at the start of the second half, as good looks from Pippen, Camden and Bell all fell short. 

That being said, facing their largest deficit of the game and an SMU 1-3-1 zone that had stifled the deep ball, Pippen knocked down a three from the top of the arc, cutting the lead to two, 50-48. Coming out of a timeout, Pippen found a lane baseline for a reverse layup, knotting the score at 50. Then, the Bears retook the lead, 53-50, on a Camden three. 

Yigitoglu had six chances from the charity strike during this stretch and went 1-6. With each attempt and each miss, the crowd grew increasingly boisterous and exaggerated in its movements. To that end, the Bears played physical defense and, to the Mustangs’ credit, it proved consequential. SMU got into the double bonus with just over seven minutes left in the game. Ames, defending a slashing Boopie Miller on the fastbreak, picked up his fourth personal foul with eight and half minutes to go. Coach Mark Madsen subbed him for Carr. 

On that, Carr offered useful minutes, “fearless basketball” as Coach Madsen described it. He contributed three rebounds (including a timely offensive board) and an assist in his 18 minutes. He played the final three minutes after Ames fouled out in what was an uncharacteristically tough shooting night for him.  

Pippen proved to be the offensive spark (he had 17 of his game-leading 22 in the second half) as the aforementioned burst helped the Bears reclaim the lead. Additionally, facing another zone look, Pippen ball-faked the defender off and found a seam for a lefty lay-in and three the hard way. 60-56. Then, off of a backcourt turnover from SMU, Pippen found Dort on the pick and roll who laid it in, putting the Bears up 62-56 with five minutes left in the game. 

SMU kept fighting and, on the back of two Corey Washington threes and two free throws, took a 67-64 lead with under two minutes in the game. 

There were eight lead changes in this game as SMU and Cal delivered jab after jab at each other in the final ten minutes. 

“It was a real close game, real good game. I feel like we just trusted each other defensively...helped get the rebound and finished the play. And executed the offense on the other end,” Justin Pippen said of the lead changes after the game. 

Down three, Camden went to the line for a 1-1. He sunk the pair to draw the lead to just one. The Mustangs ran a high screen and roll for Miller. The Bears switched, putting big man Dort out on the perimeter against Miller. He stayed down, didn’t foul and collected the rebound off the Miller miss. 

With under a minute to go, the Bears ran a high screen and roll for Pippen and Dort. Pippen found space off the pick and knocked down a midrange jumper to give the Bears the lead. Additionally, Dort secured the game-clinching rebound. 

“Lee Dort is one of our emotional leaders in the locker room. Lee Dort is someone who is always completely locked in on the game plan, he’ll ask the tough questions on the game plan because he has such a tremendous basketball IQ,” Coach Mark Madsen said of Dort after the game. 

Miller had one final look at it as he drove to the cup, spun and tossed an errant pass. Carr came up with the ball and the Bears eventually won, after a tense few possessions, 73-69. 

While Pippen was the x-factor in the second half, Dort finished with a robust statline (seven points, 10 rebounds and two assists) in his return. Bell and Camden shot well, with Bell going 4-8 from deep and 7-12 from the field while Camden shot 5-11 from two. 

This was a tremendously exciting game for Cal. The energy, the lead changes and Dort’s return created a raucous Wednesday night at Haas. Despite Ames’ poor shooting night, the Bears played patientily and unselfishly on offense. Cal moves to 20-8 overall, 8-7 in ACC play. 

Next, the Bears take on the Pittsburgh Panthers at Haas Pavilion on Saturday afternoon for a chance to improve their seeding going into the ACC Tournament. 

“It’s huge,” Coach Madsen said of the monumental Wednesday win.“We’re going to enjoy this win for another three hours, we’ll enjoy it until 5 a.m. tomorrow. When we start waking up and get here for our morning meetings, no more enjoyment because we have a huge test with Pitt coming in here.”