Cal Gets First ACC Road Win by Beating NC State

Golden Bears bounce back with a three-point win after their disappointing performance three days earlier

Jeremiah Wilkinson / Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

Three days after getting blown out by North Carolina, Cal picked up its first ACC road win but eking out a 65-62 victory over North Carolina State on Saturday in Raleigh, North Carolina.

It marked an impressive bounce back after the Bears' disappointing showing in the 26-point loss to the Tar Heels. It stopped a two-game losing streak for the Bears, who had lost eight of their previous 10 games before Saturday..

"We had a tough loss against Carolina, but our guys never stopped believing," Cal coach Mark Madsen said. "And the biggest thing is they never stopped working."

Cal (9-9. 2-5 ACC) is now 2-6 in games played away from home, with the other road win coming early in the season against USC. North Carolina State slipped to 9-9, 2-5 in the conference. It was the fourth straight North Carolina State game decided by no more than three points, and the Wolfpack lost three of them.

"Our coaches drew up a good game plan, and we just executed it the right way," said Javon Blacksher Jr., who hit the basket that put Cal ahead to stay with 1:01 left.

The win was not assured until North Carolina State's Breon Pass miss a contested three-point shot with two seconds left.

Five players scored in double figures for Cal led by Blacksher Jr.'s 14 points, including that go-ahead bucket on a driving layup with 61 seconds to go.

JOVAN. BLACKSHER. 🤯💯

Moments after NC State had taken the lead in the second half on a Jayden Taylor and-1, @ytnunahead responded and delivered the lead back to Cal to secure the dub over the Wolfpack@CalMBBall | @CalAthletics | #GoBears | @cpisecurity pic.twitter.com/MM8UqU5OoO

— ACC Digital Network (@theACCDN) January 19, 2025

"Javon Blacksher had a huge drive with the left hand to give us the lead," Madsen said, "and then we got stops late."

DJ Campbell had 13 points for the Bears, and his two free throws with 12.8 seconds left gave Cal the critical three-point lead.

Cal opted not to foul at that point, allowing Pass to take a three-point shot under considerable defensive pressure. Actually Andrej Stojakovic said afterward the team was told to foul if the ball-handler turned his back to the basket, making sure he was not in the process of shooting. But that situation never arose.

In any case, the shot missed, leaving the Wolfpack 1-for-10 on three-point shots for the game. Cal was 6-for-16 from long range after going 3-for-25 from distance against North Carolina.

"We're not going to have too many games where we shoot 3-for-27 from three like we did against Carolina," said Madsen, who gave Cal two more misses than the Bears actually had.

Cal freshman Jeremiah Wilkinson bounced back with 11 points on 4-for-8 shooting, including 3-for-6 from distance, after going scoreless on 0-for-8 shooting against the Tar Heels. Stojakovic, who began the week averaging better thn 20 point a game, had another tough day, scoring just 10 points on 5-for-16 shooting after recording a second-low six points three days earlier, when he went 3-for-13 from the field.

However, Stojakovic made two critical field goals in a span of less than a minute to put the Bears ahead by four points with 5:57 to go. But the Wolfpack surged to a 62-61 lead with 1:20 left when Jayden Taylor made a steal and converted it into a three-point play.

Blacksher Jr. put Cal back ahead by a point with a driving layup with 1:01 remaining, and a miss by the Wolfpack's Brandon Huntley-Hatfield gave Cal the ball and the lead. Campbell sank two free throws with 12.8 seconds left for the final margin.

"I kind of told the guards before the game, 'We got to push the bal,'" Blacksher said. "I feel like we play in the halfcourt a little oo much."

Cal finished the game with 11 turnovers, but only three of them came in the second half.

Wilkinson went scoreless in Wednesday’s loss to North Carolina. But on Saturday he led Cal in scoring in the first half, which ended with Cal holding a 31-29 lead.  Wilkinson was 3-for-4 from the field, including 2-for-3 on three-pointers, while scoring eight points before halftime.

Ben Middlebrooks scored nine points on 4-for-5 shooting in the first half for North Carolina State.

North Carolina State shot only 37.5% from the field in the first half, but the Wolfpack forced Cal into eight first-half turnovers, allowing N.C. State to stay in the game.

Neither team led by more than four points in the closely contested first half.  Cal took the two-point lead into intermission thanks to Wilkinson’s contested layup with 50 seconds left to break a 29-29 tie.

NOTES: Cal’s record dropped below .500 for the first time this season when it lost to North Carolina 79-53 on Wednesday. That was the Bears’ largest margin of defeat this season.

In that Wednesday loss to the Tar Heels, Cal’s top three scorers for the season – Andrej Stojakovic, Jeremiah Wilkinson and Jovan Blacksher Jr. – combined for just 11 points on 5-for-33 shooting, including 1-for-16 on three-pointers. Stojakovic had a season-low six points (the first time he’s been held under 10 points), and Wilkinson went scoreless for the first time since the third game of the season.

North Carolina State was coming off a 79-76 loss to Virginia Tech in a game in which the Wolfpack led by 15 points in the second half and by 10 points with five minutes left.

Saturday’s matchup was the first time Cal faced North Carolina State in a regular-season game. Their only two previous meeting were both in the NCAA tournament..

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