Cal Holds Off Wright State to Improve to 2-0

Cal had more trouble than expecting in putting away Wright State on Thursday night at Haas Pavilion, but the Bears survived with a 77-67 victory before a crowd of 2,172

The Bears (2-0) let most of a 16-point second-half lead get away as Wright State cut the margin to four points with 2:45 remaining. But a three-point shot by Dai Dai Ames pushed the margin to seven points at the 2:22 mark and essentially ended the drama.

Cal was expected to cruise in this home game against a Horizon League opponent. The Bears were 14.5-point favorites.

"I felt like we didn't play good at all," said Cal guard Justin Pippen. "This is why we play these games, these nonconference games, for a reason -- getting us prepared, getting us ready, so we have to go back to the drawing board and get ready for the next one."

Cal coach Mark Madsen was pleased with the way his team finished the game, but acknowledged shortcomings.

"I think we did some things really well; I think we have a lot of room for improvement," he said. "We need to finish at the rim. We need to get defensive stops late in the game, which we did not do tonight. So I would say room for improvement, definitely room for improvement."

After scoring 18 points in Monday's season-opening win, Ames led the Bears in scoring on Thursday with 23 points. He continued his ability to get to the rim off the dribble, John Camden added 12 .points and nine rebounds for Cal after scoring 23 points on Monday..Justin Pippen had 14 points for Cal and Chris Bell had 12.

Cal seemed to take control of the game early in the second half. The Bears increased a six-point halftime lead to 15 points eight minutes into the second half. Wright State made just three of its first 13 shots after halftime, helping the Bears to surge to comfortable lead.

Cal led by as many as 16 points with 8:53 left, but Wright State cut the margin to six points with 4:31 to go and cut the Cal lead to 69-65 with 2:45 remaining before Ames responded with his big three-pointer..

Wright State had more field goals than Cal and more made three-point shots than the Bears. But Cal won the game from the foul line. Cal was was 26-for-31 from the free-thrown line, while Wright State was 10-for-18.

Three-Point Shooting Woes Continue

Cal again struggled from the perimeter, going 5-for-21 on three-point shots after going 5-for-23 from long range in the opener. Madsen was expecting this team to be a good three-point shooting team, and he admitted it hasn't been the case yet.

"No question, no question," said Madsen, who added that 5-for-21 from long range "is not good enough. . . . . I don't imagine we're going to have a whole lot of games where we shoot it this poorly. from three. Now we did shoot it well from the free-throw line; we shot 84%, we got there over 30 times.

"I still believe we have a good three-point shooting team. If you look at some of the guys in there and their historical body of work, the averages will play out. But we haven't seen it yet."

Madsen was probably referring to Bell's three-point shooting history. He made 44.3% of his three-point shots in ACC play while playing for Syracuse last season, and he made 42% of his long-range shots for the Orange over the entire 2023-24 season.

However, he was 0-for-4 from beyond the three-point line on Thursday after going 1-for-4 from deep on Monday.

Cal held a 34-28 lead at halftime, despite shooting just 33.3% percent from the field and hitting just one of 10 three-point attempts.

The Raiders were not much better, making 35.7% of their shots in the first 20 minutes and going 4-for-16 on three-pointers.

Both teams took care of the ball, though, as Cal had just four turnovers in the first half and Wright State had five.

Dai Dai Ames led the Bears in scoring in the first half with nine points, while John Camden had seven points and six rebounds at halftime. No Wright State player had more than seven points in the first half.

Cal led by one point at 22-21 with 5:48 left in the first half before outscoring Wright State 12-5 to push its lead to 34-26 with 33 seconds remaining. That proved to be the Bears’ biggest lead of the first half.

Game Notes

Dejuan "DJ" Campbell, who started 16 games or Cal last season, sat out his second straight game on Thursday with an injury. Freshman TT Carr also sat out Thursday game with an injury. Madsen said both players are "day-to-day," which means one or both might be ready to play in Cal's next game on Monday.

Madsen said earlier this week that Cal's prized freshman, Jovani Ruff, has had several injuries and is likely to redshirt the season. He was a four-star proespect and was expected to get significant playing time as a freshman.

Wright State, which was picked to finish seventh in the 11-team Horizon League in the preseason media poll, won its season opener over Division III Franklin College 86-37 on Monday (Franklin called it an exhibition; Wright State called it a regular-season game.)

Last season, Wright State finished with a 15-18 record, including 8-12 in Horizon League play.

This is the second straight season Cal won its first two games, but the Bears lost their third game last season.

Cal’s next game is Monday night in Berkeley against Cal State Fullerton, which ranks second in the nation in scoring heading into Thursday’s action. The Titans set a school record for points in a game when they beat Caltech, a Division III school, by a score of 136-82 earlier this week in their only game this season.

Surprisingly, the Titans don’t lead the nation in scoring because Loyola Marymount scored 137 points in its first game.

Cal State Fullerton plays Wyoming in Laramie, Wyoming, on Saturday before facing Cal.

The Titans were picked to finish last in the 11-team Big West Conference in the preseason coaches poll.

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