Cal Basketball: Mark Fox Calls Bears' Lucky Game-Winning Shot a "Thing on Beauty"
Defense put Cal in position to beat Washington, but it was a lucky shot by Matt Bradley that provided the Bears with a 61-58 overtime victory over the Huskies at Haas Pavilion on Saturday.
With the clock winding down in a tie game in the extra period, Bradley pulled up and launched a straightaway 22-footer over the outstreched arm of Washington defender Jaden McDaniels. The ball banged off the backboard but dropped through with seven seconds left for a banked-in three-pointer that put the Bears ahead.
Though the shot may have looked ugly to observers, it was aesthically pleasing to coach Mark Fox.
"It was as pretty as a sunset, you wish you could watch that thing for 30 minutes, but it happened in like two seconds; it was a thing of beauty," Fox said. "As hard as he's worked and as much as he's bought in, he deserved to have that thing go in."
(Click here for more play-by-play of the game.)
The win gave the Bears (8-8, 2-1 Pac-12) a weekend sweep of the Washington schools and puts them over .500 in Pac-12 play for the first time since 2017-18 when the Bears beat Stanford in their conference opener.
Bradley admitted he had no intention of banking the shot, but he had to get it over a tall barrier.
"McDaniels is really tall, really long," said Bradley, who finished with 17 points.
Grant Anticevich, who was nearly the goat when he committed a foul on a three-point shooter with 34.2 seconds left and the game tied, had 13 points and had a simple description of Bradley's shot.
"Went in, got us a dub, not much else to say. Great shot," Anticevich said.
It was defense that got Cal to that point against Washington (11-6, 1-3). The Huskies, who have lost four of their past five games, shot just 29.5 percent from the floor, which is a season low for the Huskies and the worst by a Cal opponent this season.
"Our defense obviously tonight was very good," said Fox, who came to Cal with a reputation as a defensive coach, "but the play that hopefully everyone will talk about is a basket that went in to win it. It wasn't a defensive play."
Standout Washington freshman Isaiah Stewart scored a team-high 13 points but was limited to 4-for-7 shooting from the field as the trio of Lars Thiemann, Andre Kelly and D.J. Thope took turns guarding Stewart, who was held five points under average.
Still, the Bears nearly let this one get away. The Bears held a 10-point lead with 12 minutes left, but the Huskies surged ahead 49-47 on a Jamal Bey bucket with 3:33 left in regulation time. Bradley tied it with a driving layup at the 2:10 mark, and neither team scored again.
Cal went ahead 56-52 in the extra period on a pair of Paris Austin buckets and held a two-point lead when Anticevich fouled Nahziah Carter on a three-point attempt with 34.2 seconds remaining. Carter missed the first shot before making the other two to tie the game, setting up Bradley's game-winning shot.
"Our kids had to play as complete a game since I came, and I'm really pround of our team," Fox said.
