Cal Basketball: Bears' Trip to Europe Ends With Decisive Loss to German Squad

Senior center Lars Thiemann scored 14 points against his former German team but Cal was no match for the Bayer Giants Leverkusen, losing 85-59 on Saturday at Ostermann Arena in Leverkusen, Germany.

Cal finished its European tour with a 1-1 record, having beaten a team from Belgium on Thursday. The Bears’ scheduled opening game on the trip, in France, was canceled because of a leaky arena roof.

The Bears trailed 11-0 to start this one and never recovered.

“We played like a team that’s been on the road for about 10 days,” Cal coach Mark Fox said. “We got (physically out-played) by an older group and learned some great lessons.

“I thought it was a game that was really good for us; (Leverkusen is) bigger, they’re older. We have to learn how to play against big, physical teams and we didn’t play as well tonight as we need to play in situations like this. It’s a great day to learn that lesson.”

Thiemann played as an amateur for the Bayer Giants’ Pro-B level team before coming to the U.S. to join the Bears.

Freshman forward Grant Newell scored 11 points and junior guard Devin Askew, who played one season each at Kentucky and Texas before transferring in to Berkeley, contributed nine points and a team-best four assists.

“I thought the trip was great for us,” Fox said. “It enabled so many guys to play (and for) us to play different combinations. We put more value in everyone getting opportunities than we did into the cohesiveness of who’s on the court.

“We needed experiences, we needed the new guys to get lots of minutes – we got all of that. There’s so much that we’re excited about from the trip, even though we didn’t play well tonight. There’s a lot of great things that we’ll take home from this trip.”

Cal trailed 26-10 at the end of the first quarter, 46-26 at halftime and entered the final period down 70-37.

The team will return from Germany on Monday.

The Bears' 2022-23 season begins Monday, Nov. 7 against UC Davis at Haas Pavilion.

Cover photo of Cal center Lars Thiemann courtesy of Cal Athletics

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo

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