Cal Keeps NCAA Tournament Hopes Alive by Beating Georgia Tech

Cal kept alive its slim hopes of reaching the NCAA tournament by beating Georgia Tech 76-65 in Atlanta on Wednesday.

This win did not help the Bears’ NCAA tournament chances much. But a loss to a Georgia Tech team that has lost 11 in a row and is 171st in the NET rankings would have ended the Bears’ chances of earning an at-large berth to March Madness.

Cal must now win its final regular-season game on Saturday at Wake Forest and do some damage in the ACC tournament, which begins next Tuesday in Charlotte, North Carolina, to have any chance to play in the NCAAs. It's possible the Bears may need to win the ACC tournament to get into the NCAA tournament.

Lee Dort had a season-high 16 points and had five dunks for Cal (21-9, 9-8 ACC) on Wednesday, while Dai Dai Ames scored all of his team-high 18 points in the second half, when Cal took control.

The Bears missed their first 14 shots from beyond the three-point line, but thanks to Dort's work inside and Ames' ability to get to the basket off the dribble, the Bears scored 42 points in the paint to offset the outside shooting woes.

"That was a big point of emphasis," Cal coach Mark Madsen said of the inside work. "I thought Lee Dort was phenomenal."

Justin Pippen went scoreless for the first time this season, missing all seven of his shots, and but he did have eight assists.

Cal's depth was a factor. The Bears' bench outscored the Yellow Jackets' reserves 20-4.

"Our bench was elite," Madsen said. "Our bench came in and increased the lead."

Cal needed to bounce back after losing its in final home game on Saturday, when it was upset by Pitt, which had a NET ranking of 123 at the time.

And the Bears trailed for much of its game against Georgia Tech (11-19, 2-15 ACC). The Bears trailed by 12 points early in the game, and didn’t take the lead until 16:56 was left in the game. That’s when Ames made Cal’s first three-pointer of the game after missing its first 14 shots from distance, giving the Bears a 41-38 lead.

It was a big three-pointer for Cal and for Ames, who had gone 0-for-7 from distance over the Bears' previous two games and had missed his only three-point attempt in the first half Wednesday.

Cal led by as many as 14 points by the middle of the second half and held on to get the win that kept an NCAA tournament berth within range..

Virtually every NCAA tournament projection this week placed the Bears on the bubble, just outside the 68-team field.

The Bears entered Wednesday with a NET ranking of 67, and four Quad 1 wins.

The Bears could get a fifth Quad 1 victory if they beat Wake Forest on the road on Saturday in their final regular-season game, assuming Wake Forest, currently ranked 69th, remains among the top 75 in the NET rankings.

Cal’s poor shooting in the first half helped Georgia Tech to a 36-32 lead at halftime.

The Bears went 0-for-12 on three-point attempts in the first half, and that comes after going 1-for-13 from long range in the second half of Saturday’s loss to Pitt.

"I don't think I've had a half . . . maybe one other time in my career when I was at Utah Valley, we didn't make a three in the first half," Madsen said.

Cal’s top two scorers, Pippen and Ames, went scoreless in the first half, missing all seven of their shots from the floor.

Meanwhile, Georgia Tech’s Kowacie Reeves Jr. seemed to be making everything he put up. He was 5-for-8 on three-pointers in the first half, when he scored 19 points. However, Reeves did not score a single point in the seond half.

The Yellow Jackets took an early 20-8 lead before the Bears cut the margin to one point on a Lee Dort dunk with 50 seconds remaining in the half.

But Georgia Tech increased its lead to four points at halftime thanks to Jaeden Mustaf’s three-point play with 28.9 seconds to go.

.Cal played much better after halftime, starting the second half on a 9-2 run to take a three-point lead. The Bears did not take the lead for good until Ames scored with 15:25 to go, giving the Bears a 43-42 lead.

Cal's shots began to fall in the second half. After missing their first 14 three-point attempts, the Bears went 5-for-10 from long range the rest of the game. That helped Cal surge to a 14-point lead at 62-48 with 8:43 remaining, and that was too much for the Yellow Jackets to overcome.

The Bears finished 5-for-24 from distance, but the fact that Cal had just nine turnovers compared with 17 turnovers for Georgia Tech helped make up for the poor shooting. Turnovers had hurt the Bears in their loss to Pitt.

NOTES

---After playing its final regular-season game on Saturday against Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the Cal team will remain in North Carolina to prepare for the ACC tournament, which starts Tuesday in Charlotte, North Carolina.

---Cal was favored by 2.5 points over Georgia Tech, according to FanDuel and DraftKings.