Cal Basketball: Bears Are 4-4 in Pac-12 After Beating Oregon State
It took a debatable charging call in the closing seconds to make it happen, but Cal now finds itself with a 4-4 Pac-12 record after Saturday's afternoon's 69-67 victory over Oregon State before a crowd of 6,322 at Haas Pavilion.
Cal's record of 10-11 overall and 4-4 in the Pac-12 may not seem like much, but it has to be considered a signficant accomplishment after the Bears recorded just three conference wins last year, then lost three of their best players to transfers last spring and were picked to finish last in the Pac-12 this season.
First-year Cal head coach Mark Fox is not ready to take a victory lap, especially since Cal has yet to win away from home this season. However, he acknowledges that his team has followed the blueprint he laid out.
"I told them on Day One, 'Listen, there's a way that we can play that will allow you to win more games that you did a year ago,'" Fox said in the video above. "'It may not be the way you ideally want to play and may not be the prettiest way to play, but there's a way, this group can play to scratch out some wins.'
"I'm fortunate that they've bought in, and we've been able to get some [wins)."
Cal clawed and scratched its way to two two-point wins over the past seven days around Thursday's loss to Oregon -- a 52-50 victory over Stanford last Sunday when Paris Austin made two free throws with three seconds left, and Saturday's win over Oregon State (13-9, 3-7) when a charging call with 7.2 seconds remaining was the key play of the game.
Matt Bradley scored 23 points, although he missed the front end of a one-and-one situation with 20.4 seconds left and the Bears leading by one, and later missed one of two free throws with 3.9 seconds remaining to make the Cal lead 69-67.
But he pulled off the defensive play of the game. Tres Tinkle led the Beavers with 19 points, and he initiated a strong drive to the hoop with about eight seconds left and Cal leading by a point. His driving, 6-foot shot went in, but it was waved off when he was called for a changing foul that was drawn by Bradley.
"I saw him put his shoulder down, and he was going to try to get to the rim," Bradley said in the video. "He's a really good player, their leading scorer,so I knew if the game was in his hands, he was going to take the shot. So I knew if I just stepped out of the restricted zone and took the charge, if it was going to happen, and hopefully it wasn't a blocking foul, and they called a charge."
Good call, Matt?
"Great call, yeah," he said.
The call could have gone either way. If the call had gone the other way, Oregon State would have had the lead, and Tinkle would have gone to the line for the Beavers' 31st free throw of the game.
Oregon State leads the Pac-12 in free-throw attempts and it made 24 of its 30 foul shots on Saturday to stay in the game. Cal, meanwhile, was 14-for-17 from the line.
Cal would not have been in position to pull off the win were in not for the strong second half by Andre Kelly and the fact that Cal committed just two second-half turnovers.
Kelly scored all 14 of his points in the second half, in one of the best games of his career. He was also involved in a brief altercation with Oregon State center Kylor Kelley, resulting in technical fouls on both players midway through the seond half.
But Cal's Kelly was the better player in that stretch, scoring eight points on three follow shots and a second-chance bucket in a span of 2:05 to put Cal ahead. And his bucket with 1:28 left put the Bears ahead to stay at 66-64.
Cal's Kelly was not intimidated by Oregon State's Kelley, who had seven blocks against Stanford on Thursday and is second in the nation in blocked shots. But Cal's Kelly out-blocked Kelley, getting two blocks to Kelley's one on Saturday.
"We don't win without Andre, for sure," Fox said.
Kelly was pleased with his performance, too, as he noted in this video:
Pregame: Cal (9-11, 3-4 Pac-12 entering the game) has beaten Washington State, Washington and Stanford at Haas Pavilion this season, but the Bears suffered their first home loss in conference play on Thursday, when Oregon recorded a 77-72 victory.
Oregon State (13-8, 3-6 before Saturday's action) ended a four-game losing streak by beating Stanford 68-63 on the Cardinal's home court that same day. Pac-12 blocked-shots leader Kylor Kelley swatted seven Stanford shots in that game.
Cal starting lineup: G Paris Austin, G Matt Bradley, G Kareem South, F Grant Anticevich, C Lars Thiemann.
Oregon State starting lineup: G Tres Tinkle, G Ethan Thompson, C Kylor Kelley, F Zach Reichle, F Alfred Hollins
Game action:
15:41 first half: Cal hit four of its first five shots to take an early lead. Oregon State's Ethan Thompson picked up his second personal foul at the 16:33 mark and had to go to the bench for a while. Matt Bradley has six points. Cal 12, Oregon State 8.
10:03 first half: Oregon State missed six straight shots to help Cal score six straight points to take an 18-12 lead. Cal has made 7 of 12 shots from the field. Cal 20, Oregon State 15.
7:26 first half: Cal's Kuany Kuany hit a three-pointer from the corner. (His second three-point field goal of the season.) The Beavers are 6-of-17 from the field. Cal 23, Oregon State 20.
2:52 first half: The Bears move out to a six-point lead on a Paris Austin bucket, but the Beavers get back to within two as Tres Tinkle makes a fallaway 15-footer as the shot clock expires. Cal 30, Oregon State 28.
1:03 first half: Oregon State scores eight straight points to take the lead. Oregon State 32, Cal 30.
Halftime: Oregon State's trapping 1-3-1 zone defense gave Cal trouble over the final minutes of the first half. The Beavers scored the final eight points of the half to forge ahead. Tres Tinkle leads the Beavers in scoring with 12 points, while Matt Bradley has nine for the Bears. Cal was shooting better than 50 percent for most of the first half but ended up shooting 45.8 percent. Oregon State shot poorly for most of the half but ended up at 40.7 percent. Oregon State 32, Cal 30.
15:55 second half: A three-pointer by Zach Reichle put the Beavers ahead by five points at the 16:52 mark, but Matt Bradley responded with a three-point play to get the deficit down to two. Oregon State has just three turnovers for the game so far. Oregon State 41, Cal 39.
12:51 second half: Cal's Andre Kelly and Beavers center Kylor Kelley got into a brief altercation as Kelly got in Kelley's face after fouling the Oregon State center, and Kelley responded by pushing Kelly. A few seconds earlier Cal's Kelly put in a follow shot to put Cal ahead by a point. Kelley is heading to the foul line following a long pause as officials try to decide how to handle things. After a series of free throws, Cal falls behind. Oregon State 48, Cal 47.
11:30 second half: Cal leads by three but Oregon State's Jarod Lucas will be at the foul line for three shots. Cal's Andre Kelly has scored six points on three follow shots in the past two minutes to put the Bears ahead. Cal 51, Oregon State 48.
10:21 second half: Ethan Thompson nails a three-point shot at 10:31 to put the Beavers back ahead. He was wide pen in transition. Cal calls timeout. Oregon State 53, Cal 51.
8:03 second half: Andre Kelly scored from close range and Paris Austin made a 15-footer that bounced on the rim several times before falling through. Cal 55, Oregon State 53.
3:36 second half: Paris Austin will be heading to the foul line with the Bears down by one point. The Beavers are doing much of their damage from the foul line. They have attempted 28 free throws and made 23. Cal is 12-for-12 from the line. Oregon State 64, Cal 63.
2:06 second half: Andre Kelly puts a reverse layup past Kylor Kelley to put the Bears ahead 66-64 at the 2:16 mark. Kelly has 14 points; Bradley has 22. Cal 66, Oregon State 64.
26.1 seconds second half: A close call on a foul by Grant Anticevih puts Hollins on the line. He makes the first and Cal calls timeout before the second at 26.1. He misses the second. Cal 68, Oregon State 67.
7.2 seconds second half: Bradley misses the first of a one-and-one with 20 seconds left, and Tinkle scores what would have been the go-ahead basket with 7.2 seconds left, but he is called for a charge, with Bradley taking the hit. Cal 68. Oregon State 67.
Final: Bradley misses the first of two foul shots with 3.9 seconds left and Cal head by one. After a timeout, Bradley makes the second free throw to make it 69-67. Oregon State's Ethan Thompson took the inbounds pass and slipped, taking nearly all the time off the clock before a full-court shot went awry. Cal 69, Oregon State 67
