No. 4 Arizona Hands Cal Its Eighth Straight Loss

Cal put up a fight for a while against No. 4 Arizona on Thursday night, but the Golden Bears could not hang with the Wildcats down the stretch, losing 85-62 to Arizona at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley.

Azuolas Tubelis collected 23 points on 11-for-15 shooting and added 14 rebounds for Arizona (22-3, 11-3 Pac-12), which has won seven in a row overall and has beaten Cal 13 straight times.

Attendance was 3,289, about 400 shy of a season high for a Cal home crowd, although about half the crowd was made up of Arizona supporters.

Cal (3-21, 2-11 Pac-12) had a horrible start and trailed by 19 points in the first half. The Bears got to within nine points early in the second half but still suffered their eighth straight loss.

"I thought we were a little wound up, dug outselves a hole," Cal coach Mark Fox said. "Then we calmed down and competed pretty well for about 20 minutes. Ultimately their size in the paint and on the glass was too much for us to overcome. We gave up far too many points to give ourselves a chance to win."

The Wildcats had 15 offensive rebounds to five for Cal, and Arizona outscored Cal 27-3 on second-chance points.

Although Arizona guard Kerr Kriisa went scoreless, going 0-for-7 from the field, including 0-for-5 on three-pointers, the rest of the WIldcats went 11-for-21 from distance. It is when Arizona struggles from the perimeter that it is vulnerable, but the Wildcats made more than enough from long range to take care of Cal.

The Bears' 21 losses are three shy of the Cal record for defeats in a season, which was established in 2017-18 when the Bears went 8-24. The Bears are also in danger of having their fewest wins in over 100 years. Cal has won at least six games every season since 1913-14, when the Bears played just two games and went 2-0.

Cal has at least eight games remaining, including the Pac-12 tournament.

The Bears did end one embarrassing streak, though. They had failed to reach 50 points in any of their previous four games, and Cal got to the 50-point mark with 9:06 remaining in Thursday’s contest.

Of course, Cal's patient offensive style limits how many points it can score, or as Fox says in the video below, "We try to junk up the game a little bit."

Fox credited the return of DeJuan Clayton as one reason the Bears scored 62 points. Clayton had missed the past two games with an illness, but he managed just five points on 2-for-11 shooting on Thursday,

"DeJuan was out of rhythm," Fox said.

The Bears dug themselves a deep hole in the opening minutes of the game. Cal missed its first seven shots from the floor, helping Arizona take a 15-point lead at 18-3 seven minutes into the game.

Arizona increased its lead to 19 points late in the first half, but Cal used a 10-0 run in the final three minutes to cut the deficit to nine points with 54.7 seconds left in the half before a three-point shot by Pelle Larsson gave Arizona a 12-point lead at the break.

Cal got to within nine points on several occasions early in the second half, but could get no closer as Arizona stretched out its lead over the final nine minutes.

Lars Thiemann had 10 points for Cal, and Sam Alajiki, who was in the starting lineup, tallied 12 points. But Cal could not handle the Wildcats' size. Fox typically stays with a man-to-man defense, but he went to a zone for much of the game because the Bears could not match up with the 7-foot Oumar Ballo and the 6-foot-11 Tubelis.

Arizona shot 50.7% from the field for the game, including 54.8% in the second half, when the Wildcats just wore down the smaller Bears.

Cal finished the game shooting 41,7% from the field, which doesn't look great but was pretty good considering Cal started the game 1-for-10.

Cover photo of Mark Fox by Zachary BonDurant, USA TODAY Sports

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