Cal Basketball: Bears Beat Dartmouth

Cal defeated Dartmouth 61-55 in a nonconference basketball game Sunday afternoon at Haas Pavilion.

Guard Jordan Shepherd led Cal with 18 points, and Andre Kelly added 14 points and 10 rebounds. Forward Grant Anticevich scored just seven points but collected a career-high 15 rebounds. Cam Krystkowiak, the son of former Utah head coach Larry Krystkowiak, had 20 points for Dartmouth.

The one drawback for the Bears was an injury to Makale Foreman, who aggravated an ongoing foot injury and might be sidelined for a while.

The Bears (7-5) did not play their most efficient game, and their performance represented a step back from their outstanding second-half showing in last weekend's win over Santa Clara.

"To be honest I don't think we played well," said Shepherd. "We didn't have the same fire that we had against Santa Clara."

However, defense saved the Bears, who won their seventh straight home game while handing Dartmouth (3-7) its sixth straight loss.

The Bears trailed most of the first half, but a three-point shot by Jordan Shepherd at the 4:23 mark gave the Bears their first lead at 22-21, and the Bears maintained control of the game the rest of the way.

."We found ourselves defensively late in the first half, Cal coach Mark Fox said, "and maintained that for most of the game, and that was really the key to the win."

Cal scored only 27 points in the first half but that was enough to give the Golden Bears a four-point lead at halftime. Cal limited Dartmouth to 26.5 percent shooting (9-for-34) in the first half, when the Big Green managed just 23 points.

The Big Green shot 34.4 percent from the field for the game, and were just 6-for-23 from long range.

"Dartmouth is a great three-point shooting team," said Fox. "Our objective was to take away the three-point shot even at the expense of giving up some two-point shots, and ultimately we did a pretty good job of that."

Dartmouth's Brendan Barry entered the game averaging 4.0 made three-pointers per game, which ranked fifth in the nation.

"His numbers were comparable to Steph Curry," Fox said.

But Barry was just 1-for-6 from beyond the arc on Sunday, his one make was from way beyond the three-point line.

Cal pulled ahead in the second half, leading by as many as 12 points. But early in the second half, Foreman, who has been slowed by injuries this season, aggravated a foot injury that forced him to leave the game.

Fox did not know the extent of the injury after the game, but he feared it might sideline Foreman for a while.

"I don't get a good feeling about the injury," Fox said.

Cal led by 11 points with 3:49 remaining, but the Big Green got the margin down to five points with 50.9 seconds to go. But that was as close as Dartmouth could get.

Shepherd seemed to score whenever things got a little dicey for the Bears.

"The completeness of Jordan is really where his value is," Fox said.

Cal began Sunday ranked 135th in the nation and ninth among Pac-12 schools in the NET rankings, which are used in determining NCAA tournament berths and seeding.

Cal plays one more nonconference game on Wednesday against Pacific in Berkeley before getting back to Pac-12 play on Dec. 31 at Washington State.

Cover photo of Grant Anticevich by CK Hicks, Cal Athletics

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

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