Skip to main content

Richmond-California Preview

  • Author:
  • Publish date:

A second-half collapse combined with its worst shooting performance of the season have California looking for its first bounce-back effort.

Richmond can surely empathize.

The No. 14 Golden Bears face the Spiders in a matchup of teams looking to regain their scoring touch in the consolation game of the Las Vegas Invitational on Friday night.

California (4-1) averaged 85.3 points and shot 48.9 percent while barely being challenged through its first four games. That changed Thursday when the Golden Bears connected on a season-low 37.5 percent of their shots and squandered a 15-point second-half lead to fall 72-58 to San Diego State.

Tyrone Wallace and Jordan Mathews are among the Golden Bears looking for redemption after the starting guards combined to shoot 11 for 31 for 26 points with just three assists and seven of the team's 15 turnovers.

Despite the subpar effort, Wallace leads Cal with 19.4 points per game and is shooting 54.5 percent from the field, while Mathews has put up an average of 12.6 points.

Ivan Rabb was one of the Golden Bears' few bright spots against the Aztecs, scoring a season-high 18 points with nine rebounds. The freshman forward is averaging 13.2 points and 8.6 boards while starting each of his first five games.

Richmond (3-2) averages 84.4 points while hitting 50.2 percent from the floor and 36.8 from beyond the arc. However - like Cal - the Spiders' three-game winning streak ended with their worst shooting effort of the season.

They converted just 39.1 percent of their shots, including 2 of 15 from 3-point range, in Thursday's 67-59 loss to West Virginia.

Still, coach Chris Mooney came away encouraged.

"I thought that our effort and toughness were tremendous," he told the team's website. "We responded to each one of their runs, and played with a lot of heart. We needed just a few more shots to fall to get us over that hump at different points in the game.

"We're a good shooting team that missed shots. I couldn't be more proud of our effort."

Terry Allen continues to do his part while leading the team with 19.8 points per game. The senior forward scored 20 points against the Mountaineers, sinking 5 of 10 shots and 10 of 12 free throws. That came five days after he scored 25 points and grabbed 13 rebounds with five assists in an 89-64 win over Bethune-Cookman.

T.J. Cline had 14 points in that matchup but followed it with a season-low five while going 2 for 4 from the floor and 1 for 4 at the line Thursday. The junior forward had at least eight field-goal attempts in each of the previous four games.

The Spiders have won their last two meetings with ranked opponents but both came last season against VCU. They've dropped their last four against Top 25 teams from outside the Atlantic 10.

This is the second meeting after the Golden Bears won the first in December 1993.