Arizona's Size Too Much for Cal to Handle in Wildcats' 21-Point Win

Cal could not handle Arizona's size advantage in Saturday afternoon's game in Tucson, and it resulted in a lopsided 71-50 defeat, which was the Bears' lowest scoring output of the season and their fourth straight loss.

Cal fell to 7-12 overall and 2-10 in the Pac-12, keeping the Bears in last place and making them 1-8 on the road this season. Arizona improved to 13-4, including 7-4 in conference play.

"They dominated the paint," Cal coach Mark Fox said. "Their size was the biggest factor. They were three inches bigger than one guy and four inches bigger than the other in the starting lineup."

(Click here for a detailed play-by-play of the game.)

It was actually a bigger height gap than that.

Christian Koloko, Arizona's starting center, is 7-foot-1, and Andre Kelly, Cal's top inside threat, is just 6-foot-8 -- a five-inch difference. That is part of the reason Kelly, who has been one of Cal's most productive players recently, had just four points and attempted just four shots. He had averaged 12.5 points and 5.9 rebounds over the previous eight games, but had just the four points and three rebounds Saturday before fouling out after playing just 15 minutes.

Arizona power forward Azuolas Tubelis is 6-foot-11, and his Cal counterpart, Grant Anticevich, is 6-foot-8. Anticevich was limited to four points on 1-for-6 shooting.

Cal's 7-foot sophomore Lars Thiemann came off the bench and played 21 minutes, but he had just two points and did not attempt a field goal.

In fact, nobody other than Matt Bradley did much offensively for Cal as the Bears were unable to get into the paint on offense.

Bradley scored 21 points on 7-for-10 shooting, including 5-for-6 on three-pointers. But the rest of the Cal team was 11-for-37 from the field (29.7 percent) and 2-for-16 from long range.

Matt hits his third 3. He has 11 points so far.

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And even Bradley was not perfect as he committed six of Cal's 16 turnovers.

"Matt finished plays today," Fox said. "He turned it over more than he or I wanted him to. He had four turnovers at half, ended up with six. But when he takes the right shots he certainly finished plays today. We have to get more help around Matt."

Any way you slice it, this was not a good game for Cal, which was never a factor in the contest.

Cal did not score for the first 5:28 of the game, and was behind by double digits early on. Arizona expanded its lead to as many as 29 points in the second half.

"I'm disappointed in how we played," Fox said. "I thought Arizona was the aggressor from the jump ball. I thought they dominated the paint. I felt like we were playing uphill all day, which we really were."

Cal had to finish with a flurry just to get to 50 points. The Bears had just 36 points with 7:40 left. The Bears still wound up with their lowest point total since scoring 45 points in a loss to Utah last Feb. 8. Cal's previous lowest output this season was 56 against UCLA back on Dec. 6.

The Wildcats were led by James Akinjo, who had 20 points, eight assists and zero turnovers. And the Wildcats were able to get good shots most of the game, helping them shoot 51.9 percent from the floor.

Cover photo of Matt Bradley by Soobum Im, USA TODAY Sports

Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

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