Cal Looks to Build on Win in Saturday's Basketball Game at Oregon

CAL (10-15, 3-11 Pac-12) at OREGON (16-7, 9-3 Pac-12)
WHERE: Matthew Knight Arena, Eugene, Oregon
WHEN: Saturday, 1 p.m.
TV: Pac-12 Network
RADIO: 810-AM
CAL-OREGON HISTORY: Cal leads the all-time series 84-66, but Oregon has won the last nine meetings between the two teams. Oregon won both contests against the Bears last season – 82-69 in Eugene and 74-63 in Berkeley. Cal has not won in Eugene since the 2013-14 season. Saturday’s game is the only time Oregon and Cal are scheduled to meet this season.
CAL STORYLINES: The 10th-place Golden Bears ended a 10-game losing streak while also claiming their first road victory of the season with a 63-61 win at Oregon State on Wednesday. . . . Wednesday’s game was the fourth time in the past five games that Cal was in position to win in the closing minutes, but Wednesday’s game was the only one they won in that span . . . . Cal ranks last in the Pac-12 in scoring offense, averaging 64.1 points per game . . . The Bears will be playing their fifth straight game without Andre Kelly, who is sidelined for the rest of the season with an ankle injury . . . Cal point guard probably had the best game of his career on Wednesday, collecting nine points, nine rebounds, seven assists, three steals and one turnover while also playing solid defense on Oregon State’s top scorer, Jarod Lucas, who was 2-for-7 from the field . . . Grant Anticevich seems to have broken out of his shooting slump. After averaging 5.3 points on 26.8% shooting over a seven-game stretch, Anticevich averaged 14.5 points on 50% shooting over the past two games . . . Jalen Celstine has performed well lately, scoring a career-high 20 points in the Feb. 5 loss to Washington State. Celestine has been particularly effective on the perimeter, hitting 40.6% of his three-point shots. . . . Cal’s best long-rang shooter has been freshman Sam Alajiki. He has made 58.6% of his three-point shots (17-for-29), but has attempted enough to qualify for a Pac-12 or national ranking. He did not score in either of the Bears’ past two games and missed his only three-point shot in those two games. . . .Jordan Shepherd leads the Bears in scoring at 13.8 points per game, but he is only 2-for-20 on three-point shots over the past four games.
OREGON STORYLINES: The Ducks currently are on the bubble for landing an NCAA tournament berth, so they can’t afford to lose a home game to Cal. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi and CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm both have Oregon in the 68-team field tournament as a No. 10 seed as of Friday morning . . . . Oregon is coming off Thursday’s 68-60 victory over Stanford, which was the Ducks’ fourth win in a row and 10th win in their last 11 games. . . . Oregon is tied with UCLA for second place in the Pac-12 standings, and it still has games against Arizona, USC and UCLA remaining, the latter two at home . . . The Ducks rank third in the Pac-12 in scoring offense,, averaging 73.6 points, and they lead the Pac-12 in three-point shooting at 36.0% . . . Ducks guard Will Richardson is in contention for Pac-12 Player of the Year. He’s averaging 15.1 points, which is fourth in the conference, and leads the Pac-12 in three-point shooting at 44.3%. However, he had a poor shooting game against Stanford, going 3-for-14 from the field and 1-for-8 on three-pointers. Richardson still finished with 12 points and six assists without committing a turnover . . . Richardson is Oregon’s leading scorers, but the Ducks’ next three top scorers are all transfers who came to Oregon this season: Jacob Young (from Rutgers) is averaging 11.8 points, De’Vion Harmon (from Oklahoma) 11.1 points and Quincy Guerrier (from Syracuse) 8.7 points.
CAL GAME NOTES: Click here
OREGON GAME NOTES: Click here
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Cover photo of Oregon guard Will Richardson by Soobum Im, USA TODAY Sports
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Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.