Cal Blows 19-Point Lead in Loss to Saint Joseph's in NIT

Cal’s 2025-26 season ended Sunday night when the Bears blew a 19-point, second-half lead and lost to Saint Joseph’s 76-75 in a second-round game of the National Invitation Tournament before a crowd of 1,657 at Haas Pavilion.

This Bears (22-12) led 55-36 with 15:24 to go, but the Hawks (24-11) fought back and outscored the Bears 40-20 the rest of the way.

"Our defense in the second half was nowhere near where it needed to be," Cal coach Mark Madsen said.

The Hawks took the lead with 1:51 left on a three-point shot by Derek Simpson, which turned out to be the final scoring of the game.

Cal's Lee Dort had his shot blocked with 37 second left, and the Bears subsequently forced a miss from the Hawks with seven seconds remaining.

The final seven seconds turned out to be the difference. Dort rebounded the Saint Joseph's miss and tossed an outlet pass to Dai Dai Ames, who was on the run in fast-break mode. Madsen opted not to call his final timeout as Ames hurried toward the basket.

"In a situation like that, I'm looking at it develop," Madsen said. "I'm looking at it, I'm thinking 'We have an advantage.' So I made a decision not to call a timeout. Sometimes when you call a timeout, you let the defense set up and you end up getting a worse shot."

"So I made the decision, I thought we had a lane."

Ames seemed to be in control in the open court and was able to get to his favored left hand for a shot attempt.

"Really me just trying to get a bucket," Ames said. "I think DJ (Campbell) was open in the corner."

Ames took it all the way himself and put up an off-balance 5-foot shot on the run.

But Saint Joseph's 6-foot-6 Jaiden Glover-Toscano chased Ames down and swatted away Ames shot at the buzzer.

"I didn't really think he was going to get to it, because I kind of threw it up high on the glass," Ames said. "Great defensive play."

Ames finished with 16 points, but he needed two more. A lot of credit goes to Glover-Toscano, who finished a game-high 24 points.

Saint Joseph's coach Steve Donahue admired Glover-Toscano's hustle on the final play.

"And here comes Glover, not quitting on the play, and comes up with the block," said Donahue.

The Hawks have now won nine of their past 10 games, while Cal went 2-4 over its final six games. The Bears still finished with their most wins in 10 years, but this was a sour way to end it..

The Hawks will play an NIT quarterfinal game on Tuesday or Wednesday against New Mexico, which defeated George Washington 86-61 in the Lobos’ second-round game Sunday.

Cal played Sunday’s game without John Camden, who was sidelined with an injury. Nolan Dorsey took Camden’s place in the starting lineup.

Cal’s Chris Bell made up for Camden’s absence by scoring 23 points. He was 7-for-8 on three-pointers in Wednesday’s victory and he went 5-for-12 from beyond the arc on Sunday.

He missed his first four three-point shots of the game, but kept shooting and made five of his next six shots from distance. It appeard he was going to be the star for the second straight game. Instead his college career ended with Cal's second-half collapse.

Cal quickly expanded an eight-point halftime lead to 14 points less than two minutes into the second half.

Saint Joseph’s Dasear Haskins missed a breakaway dunk at the 17:08 mark, and 25 seconds later Ames made a three-pointer to give Cal a 15-point lead at 50-35. When Ames hit another bucket with 16:01 left in the second half the Bears’ lead grew to 17 points.

Cal increased its lead to 19 with 15:24 to go before Saint Josph’s launched its comeback bid.

The Hawks got the margin down four points at 72-68 with 4:11 left, and Saint Joseph’s took a one-point lead when Simpson made a three-point shot with 1:51 remaining.

Cal started the game slowly, making only one of its first seven shops, helping Saint Joseph’s to an early 12-5 lead.

However, the Bears controlled play for the rest of the half, which ended with Cal holding a 41-33 lead.

A Dai Dai Ames 12-foot shot at the first-half buzzer gave Cal is largest lead of the first half at eight points.

Pippen was Cal’s top scorer in the first half with just seven points, while Jaiden Glover-Toscano had 11 for the Hawks.

Cal had just four turnovers in the first 20 minutes.

NOTES

---Cal was a 5.5-point favorite in Sunday’s game, according to FanDuel and DraftKings. ESPN Analytics gave Cal a 78.2 percent chance of winning the game.

---Saint Joseph’s mascot Hawk was present at Sunday’s game, and he never stops flapping his wings throughout the game, even flapping during timeouts. This is a long-standing tradition of the Hawk.