Cal Loses Fifth Straight, but Moves Closer to Qualifying for ACC Tournament

Cal's second-half rally fell short and the Bears suffered their fifth straight defeat, losing to SMU 81-77 before a crowd of 4,133 at Haas Pavilion on Wednesday night.

Nonetheless, Cal moved a little closer to assuring itself a berth in the ACC tournament because Boston College and North Carolina State, the Bears' competition for the final spot in the ACC tournament, both lost on Wednesday as well.

Cal (12-16, 5-12 ACC) has three regular-season games left and can clinch that conference tournament berth if things go the Bears' way on Saturday.

The Bears trailed SMU by 17 points late in the first half and were behind by 16 points at 45-29 in the first minute of the second half. The Bears rallied to tie the game with 5:33 left but could never take the lead.

Cal got behind 23-7 in the early going, played from behind the entire game and could never take command.

"We gave up 42 points in the first half," Cal coach Mark Madsen said. "Extremely slow start. We were slow on rotation defensively. We were playing with nonchalance on the offensive end, on both ends of the court. We cannot have starts like that and expect to beat a good team like SMU.

"They came out champing at the bit. They took it right to us. I take responsibility for the slow start. Got to figure this out."

It's the second straight game that Cal fell behind by 17 points in the second half, only to come back to tie the game before losing. Last Saturday, the Bears fell behind Stanford by 17 points with 11:24 left in the game, then came back to tie the score with 42 seconds left before losing 66.61.

"The last three games it's been exactly the same way," said Cal center Mady Sissoko, who had 16 points and eight rebounds.

Cal did make a strong run to get back in the game against SMU. The Bears got the deficit down to two points on Christian Tucker's driving layup with 7:34 left in the second half, and Andrej Stojakovic's two free throws again made it a two-point game with 6:04 remaining. Stojakovic then made two more foul shots to tie the game 66-66 at the 5:33 mark.

But Cal could not take the lead.

SMU scored nine straight points before Cal scored again. The Bears got the deficit down to four points with 43.9 seconds remaining and again with 30 seconds left.

Sissoko reduced the SMU lead to two points (79-77) with a three-point play with 5.3 seconds to go, but SMU's Matt Cross made two free throws with 3.9 seconds remaining to seal it.

"Youve got to come out punching from the start, which we didn't do tonight," Madsen said.

Jeremiah Wilkinson led the Bears with 20 points, and he is averaging 20.3 points since being moved into the starting lineup 10 games ago. Stojakovic, Cal's leading scorer, was limited to nine points on 1-for-9 shooting from the field.

Chuck Harris had 21 points for SMU.

SMU shot 55.6% from the field and was 8-for-15 from three-point range. Cal shot 32 free throws, but missed 10 of them, and made its comeback with defensive pressure that forced SMU into 18 turnovers. SMU was without point guard Boopie Miller, the team's leader in scoring and assists, and his absence helped Cal do damage with its press.

Cal came into play on Wednesday tied with Syracuse for 14th place in the ACC standings, just a game ahead of Boston College and North Carolina State.

Boston College lost to Stanford 78-60 and North Carolina State lost to Syracuse 74-60 in games played on Wednesday, leaving both Boston College and NC State with 4-13 ACC marks with three regular-season games left. If Cal beats Boston College in Berkeley on Saturday and North Carolina State loses a road game to Georgia Tech the same day, the Bears would clinch a berh in the ACC tournament.

With a Cal win and an NC State loss, Cal could finish no worse than tied with the Eagles or the Wolfpack for the final ACC tournament spot. Since Cal would then own a 3-0 record over the Wolfpack and Boston College during the season, the Bears would win any tie-breaker for the 15th and final spot in the conference tournament.

Only the top 15 finishers in the 18-team ACC qualify for the conference tournament. Miami is 18th and last with a 2-15 conference mark and three games left. Cal holds the tie-breaker against the Hurricanes as well.

SMU (21-7, 12-5 ACC) is 7-1 on the road in ACC play, but just 5-4 at home. The Mustangs had lost two of their previous three games, with both defeats coming at home. SMU is on the bubble for an NCAA tournament berth and a loss to Cal would have hurt those chances.

SMU led 42-29 at halftime, thanks to the Mustangs’ hot shooting to begin the game. SMU made its first five three-point shots and that enabled the Mustangs to take a 16-point lead (23-7) 11 minutes into the contest.

Wilkinson scored 12 points in the first half and that helped the Bears stay in the game.

SMU’s biggest lead of the first half came with 3:20 remaining when the Mustangs held a 17-point advantage. Cal cut the deficit to 10 points with the help of some pressure defense, but the Mustangs built the margin back to 13 points at the break.

SMU shot 58.1% from the floor in the first 20 minutes, when it was 6-for-8 from long distance. Cal made just 33.3% of its first-half shots and was 1-for-9 from distance.

NOTES: Boopie Miller, SMU’s leader in both scoring (13.4 points per game) and assists (5.7 per game), missed his fourth straight game on Wednesday because of a foot injury.

Cal forward Joshua Ola-Joseph missed his second straight game with an injury. He has started 10 games this season and is averaging 7.2 points and 3.8 rebounds. His 36.5% shooting on three-pointers is the best on the team..