Cal No Match For No. 16 Louisville's Firepower in 90-70 Defeat

Cal’s best start to a basketball season since 1960 hit a major speed bump on Tuesday night at Haas Pavilion.

No. 16 Louisville put a quick damper on the Bears’ season-best crowd of 6,012, dashing to a 10-0 lead, and the Cardinals were never threatened in a 90-70 victory.

The Bears (12-2, 0-1 ACC) saw their nine-game win streak snapped and suffered their first home defeat in 10 games. There is a long season still in front of them, but on this night the Bears were no match for Louisville’s quickness and precision.

The Cardinals (11-2, 1-0), winning on the road for the first time in three tries, had their way offensively, scoring either at the rim or from beyond the 3-point arc.

Cal returns to action Friday against Notre Dame (10-4,1-0) in an 8 p.m. game at Haas. The Irish beat Stanford 47-40 on Tuesday night.

Louisville led by as many as 21 points in the first half and took a 48-34 advantage into the break. Coach Mark Madsen talks in the video above about the Bears' poor start.

When Khani Rooths delivered Louisville’s sixth dunk of the night, the margin reached 25 points at 66-41 with 12:43 to play.

Cal gave its fans something to cheer about with a 14-0 run that trimmed the deficit to 73-62. The surge was capped by a wild sequence where the Bears scored seven points in a span of 2 seconds — a layup by TT Carr, two technical foul free throws by Chris Bell and a 3-pointer by Bell off an inbounds pass from Justin Pippen with 6:44 left.

Louisville responded with a 7-0 burst, punctuated by a 3-pointer from Adrian Wooley and the lead was back to 80-62.

Bell led the Bears with 20 points, Pippen scored 17, Lee Dort had 12 points and 10 rebounds and Dai Dai Ames scored 11. But senior forward John Camden, Cal’s second-leading scorer at 15.5 points per game, was scoreless on 0-for-7 shooting through the game’s first 33 minutes.

Cal shot just 34 percent from the field and was 9 for 26 from the 3-point arc.

Ryan Conwell scored 26 points, including six 3-pointers, for Louisville and and Wooley added 21. The Cardinals were 14 for 37 from the 3-point arc and never bothered with a 2-point basket that wasn’t a layup or dunk.

Louisville outrebounded the Bears 49-32 and outscored them 36-16 in the paint.

The Cardinals jumped out to a 10-0 lead and pretty much got what they wanted on offense on the way to a 48-34 halftime lead.

Louisville stretched its lead to 36-15 when after a fast break layup by Wooley with 5:53 left in the half.

Cal’s defense held the ACC’s highest-scoring team without a point for five straight possessions, and the Bears ran off 10 straight to pull within 36-25 after a layup by Dort with 3:15 left.

The Cardinals regained control with back-to-back 3-pointers from Wooley and J’Vonne Hadley and a driving lay-up by Wooley with 3 seconds left n the half pushed their advantage to 14 points.

Cal struggled offensively, converting just 33 percent (8 for 24), with only two layups and no dunks. The Bears gave themselves a chance getting to the foul line and making 14 of 18 free throws.

NOTE: The Cardinals played without freshman guard Mikel Brown Jr., regarded as a top-5 NBA draft pick. Brown missed his third straight game due to injury.

Follow Jeff Faraudo on Twitter, Facebook and Bluesky

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