Cal Basketball: Energized By Crowd of 8,710, Bears Topple Stanford 73-71 at Haas

The Cal basketball team took another big step out of the darkness on Friday night.

After five seasons of losing and dwindling passion from their fan base, the Bears enjoyed their biggest night under first-year coach Mark Madsen, beating rival Stanford 73-71 in front of 8,710 fans who created the best atmosphere Haas Pavilion has experienced in quite some time.

“The Golden Bear family had our backs,” redshirt junior guard Jalen Celestine said. “There was a time they could have gave up on us . . . the fans were really on our side. I loved it, man.”

Madsen, who played his college ball for Stanford, was furiously exchanging high-fives with fans and hugging everyone in his path as he left the court. Players said he did a little dance in the locker room.

“It felt great — you had students from all across campus,” Madsen said. “You had fraternities and sororities here. You had different clubs. An unbelievable turnout from the Cal band. Just gratitude to everyone who came out and let’s continue to invite them out.”

The Cal football team showed up en masse — bringing The Axe with them — and star running back Jaydn Ott and coach Justin Wilcox encouraged the crowd on the mic during an early timeout. The three-time NCAA championship water polo team was celebrated.

Maybe the only way the atmosphere could have been further charged was if former Golden Bears quarterback Jared Goff — who will be back home in the Bay Area for Sunday’s NFC title game — had made an appearance.

For athletic director Jim Knowlton, this was a taste of what he envisioned when he hired Madsen last offseason.

“The atmosphere was fabulous,” he said. “I give credit to our staff — they’ve been out talking to students, fraternities. It was amazing and it helped our team. It just brought energy.

“For Mark and what he’s doing, it’s a large part of him engaging fans, engaging faculty, and talking to students. He just has that magnetic personality.”

The Bears were last in the Pac-12 in attendance last season, averaging 2,155 during their 3-29 campaign. They drew only 3,648 for their home game vs. Stanford, although it was during break, without students on campus.

“This is what we’re building. This was a giant step. This is where we want to be,” Knowlton said. “We’d like to sell this place out every single night.”

"Hopefully they come out the next home stretch we have against the L.A. schools,” Celestine said, “and just keep it going from there.”

The Bears (8-12, 4-5 Pac-12) play in Arizona next week then return home to face USC on Wednesday, Feb. 7 and UCLA on Saturday, Feb. 10.

Friday night’s game went back and forth and wasn’t settled until Stanford center Maxime Raynaud was called for traveling with 10.7 seconds left after he leaked out and was all alone near the basket when he took a pass from Michael Jones.

Celestine then hit the second of two free throws with 7 seconds left, inching the Bears’ lead to 73-71.

Stanford (10-9, 5-4) got one more chance but Kaanan Carlyle could not complete a hard drive to the basket, and the horn sounded before Raynaud could do anything with the offensive rebound.

The Bears got double-digit scoring from six players, including 12 points from Celestine — all after star guard Jaylon Tyson left the game with what appeared to be a hamstring injury with 9:39 left in the second half. Tyson re-entered the game with 6:50 left, then left for good a minute later, although he was riding an exercise bike on the sideline.

Madsen provided no details on the injury to Tyson, who entered the game as the Pac-12’s leading scorer at 21 points game. He had a game-high 14 points along with six rebounds, four assists and two steals in 27 minutes.

Grant Newell came off the bench to provide 11 points and 10 rebounds, big man Fardaws Aimaq had 13 points and 12 rebounds for his 13th double-double, Keonte Kennedy had 11 points and three steals and Jalen Cone scored 10 points, despite a 1-for-11 shooting night.

Stanford coach Jerod Haase, who played his freshman season of 1992-93 at Cal alongside Jason Kidd, said he walked around campus earlier in the day to reflect on those times. He was excited for the game-night atmosphere

“The student-athlete experience for me is a big deal. It was really fun for our guys to be out there tonight; it was fun for their guys,” he said. “That’s what college basketball is supposed to be . . . a lot of energy. The crowd was fantastic. Cal’s team fed off that energy, but I think we did, too.”

Cover photo by Kelley L. Cox, KLC fotos

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo