Devin Askew, Lars Thiemann Superb in Cal Loss to No. 4 Arizona

Bears fall to 0-9, but play their best game of the season in their defeat in Tucson

Cal lost by 13 points and their record fell to 0-9, the worst start in program history, yet the Bears probably feel pretty good about themselves.

Cal played its best game of the season in Sunday's 81-68 loss in Tucson, Ariz., to fourth-ranked Arizona, which has won 23 straight home games and has beaten Cal 12 times in a row.

Despite being 23.5-point underdogs, the Bears were competive for most of the game, trailing by seven points with 7:17 remaining. And they got outstanding performances from Lars Thiemann and Devin Askew.

"I think we took a big step forward," Cal coach Mark Fox said afterward.

This has been a dismal start to the Cal season, which slipped to 0-2 in Pac-12 play, so anything other than bleak reports are notworthy.

Askew scored a career-high 25 points, four days after scoring 23 points in Wednesday's loss to USC.

"Devin Askew played with a big heart and great poise," Fox said. "I thought he was terrific."

Just as impressive were the career-high 18 points scored by the 7-foot Thiemann on 9-for-14 shooting.  He did it while being defended by standout 6-foot-11 Arizona center Oumar Ballo, who was outscored by Thiemann 18-17.

Thiemann has scored in double figures in eight of Cal's nine games and is averaging 12.9 points per game, a dramatic improvement from last season when he averaged 4.7 points.

Arizona's 6-foot-11 Azuolas Tubelis led all scorers with 25 points and 12 rebounds, and 15 of those points came in the first nine minutes of the game when 6-foot-8 Cal freshman Grant Newell was guarding him.

Cal's ability to make the game competitive leads to more questions about Arizona, which improved to 7-1 overall and 1-1 in the conference but has not been particuarly impressive in its two conference games.

The Wilcats were upset in their Pac-12 opener at Utah, when they shot 4-for-28 on three-point shots.  They weren't much better on Sunday, going 4-for-20 from behind the arc.

"If you had told me we would come in here today and score one less field goal than Arizona and make the same number of threes as Arizona, we'd have taken that," Fox said. "We just got destroyed at the free-throw line."

Cal shot 44.4% from the field, while Arizona, which entered the game leading the nation in field-goal percentage at 56.1%, shot 49.2% on Sunday.

Cal made all its free throws, but attempted only eight, while Arizona was 19-for-26 from the foul line.

The Wildcats committed only five turnovers for the game, but the Bears turned the ball over just nine times.

This play dd not turn out not turn out well for Cal:

STUFFED AT THE RIM 🚫

📺 @Pac12Network pic.twitter.com/QEKXBWJRSY

— Arizona Basketball (@ArizonaMBB) December 4, 2022

Cal is still playing without DeJuan Clayton and Jalen Celestine.

Cal will not play another conference game until Dec. 29 when it hosts Utah. The Bears will play four nonconference games in the meantime, against Eastern Washington, Butler, Santa Clara and UT Arlington.

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Cover photo by Zachary BonDurant, USA TODAY Sports

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