Cal Overcomes DII Dominican, Stretches Win Streak to Six Games

The Cal basketball team survived what it hopes will be its worst half of the season, finally turning back Division II Dominican 93-71 on Tuesday night at Haas Pavilion.

The Bears have won six in a row and are 9-1, but this performance won’t translate well when they open ACC play at home against No. 11 Louisville on Dec. 30.

Cal trailed by as many as 10 points in the first half, fought back to take a brief lead then went into the locker room down 31-28. The Bears missed 15 consecutive shots during one grim stretch, watching an early 9-4 lead dissolve into a 21-11 deficit over a 7 1/2-minute span.

The Bears entered the game ranked third in the ACC with a .381 percentage from beyond the arc. But they were 1 for 16 from deep in the first half, when they converted just 18.4 percent (7 for 38) overall and dished just two turnovers.

That changed when the teams swapped baskets to start the second half. Justin Pippen made a 3-pointer 12 seconds into the half and Cal made a trio of 3’s in the first 2-plus minutes to take a lead it would not relinquish.

The margin reached 50-42 when Pippen made his third 3-pointer of the half with 15:14 left.

The San Rafael-based Penguins (5-2) hung around before the Bears took a double-digit lead for the first time on a drive and free throw by Dai Dai Ames for a 68-58 advantage with 8:50 to play. That basket had the Bears shooting 68 percent (13 for 19) in the half, a dramatic turnaround.

A layup by Pippen and an impressive put-back dunk by freshman guard TT Carr finally gave Cal a measure of control at 72-58 with 7:21 left.

Pippen scored a career-high 24 points, including 17 in the second half. He added four steals and was 9 for 9 from the foul line. John Camden contributed 18 points and eight rebounds while Ames, scoreless on 0-for-6 shooting in the first half, wound up with 14 points and five assists.

Chris Bell scored 11 points and Carr had season bests of 10 points and seven rebounds.

The Bears shot 66.7 percent from the field in the second half, made 7 of 11 from 3-point range and finished the night 27 for 30 from the free throw line. They turned the ball over just five times.

Nick Medeiros, a 5-foot-11 senior guard, had 16 points, nine assists and six rebounds for the Penguins.

Cal used defense to climb back into the game after falling behind by 10 in the first half. The Penguins shot 1 for 10 and committed five turnovers over nearly 10 minutes and the Bears went ahead 24-23 when John Camden converted a drive to the hoop with 3:17 left.

The Bears shot 13 for 14 from the free throw line in the half, suggesting there was a payoff to playing aggressively. Too often, they settled for 3-point tries and their misses allowed the Penguins to get the idea they had a chance to beat a Division I opponent.

Dominican outscored Cal 8-2 over the final 1:43 of the period to take a three-point lead into intermission.

NOTES: Cal’s six-game win streak is its longest since the 2015-16 team won seven straight Pac-12 games late in the season on the way to a 23-11 record and the program’s most recent NCAA tournament bid. That team, which was coached by Cuonzo Martin and finished with a final No. 23 AP ranking, featured freshman and future NBA star Jaylen Brown along with Tyrone Wallace, Ivan Rabb, Jordan Mathews and Jabari Bird. The Bears’ roster also included senior walk-on guard Nick Kerr, son of Warriors coach Steve Kerr and now a member of his coaching staff.

— The Bears entered play Tuesday with a NET computer ranking of 56, which is 10th among ACC teams. Their ranking is not likely to climb after beating a Division II school.

— Cal returns to Haas for a 2 p.m. game Saturday against Northwestern State (2-7).

— Dominican is led by fifth-year head coach Justin Argenal, an East Bay native who began his career as a graduate assistant at Ole Miss and later was head coach at De La Salle, his high school his alma mater.

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