Cal's Double-Overtime Loss to Syracuse Hurts Bears' NCAA Tournament Chances

Cal took a step backward in its bid for an NCAA tournament berth by losing to Syracuse 107-100 in double overtime Wednesday night at JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse, New York.

Cal had a chance to win the game in regulation time, and forced a second overtime with a bucket at the buzzer. But Syracuse led throughout the second overtime, taking a seven-point lead with 37 seconds left on a Donnie Freeman bucket and coasting in from there.

A city-wide power outage interrupted action in the overtime, shutting down the scoreboard for a short period. The rest of the game was played with power supplied by a generator.

Syracuse shot 55.3 percent from the field, but the Orange's 25-for-42 shooting from the foul line gave Cal a chance for the win. Syracuse scored 62 points in the paint, and its 107 points were the most given up by Cal since its 112-110 four-overtime loss to Notre Dame in the final regular-season game last season.

"We did not play good enough defense," Cal head coach Mark Madsen said in his postgame radio interview. "But at times we forced a missed shot in the halfcourt, but we were not able to secure the rebound.

"We just need more resistance. We had to switch to zone because they were driving right past us."

This defeat is considered a bad loss for Cal (17-8, 5-7 ACC) as far as Cal’s NCAA tournament hopes are concerned, even though Syracuse (14-11, 5-7 ACC) was a 6.5-point favorite, according to FanDuel and DraftKings. And ESPN’s BPI Predictions gave Syracuse a 67.7% chance to beat Cal on Wednesday.

The loss certainly did not end Cal's chance of earning an NCAA tournament berth for the first time in 10 years, but it may have knocked the Bears off the bubble for the time being.

Cal had a chance to win the game in regulation time after Syracuse's JJ Starling was called for traveling with 22.3 seconds left and the score tied 78-78. But after Dai Dai Ames dribbled around for 18 seconds trying to break free but unable to do so, Ames missed a contested eight-foot shot at the buzzer, forcing overtime.

Ames was the logical person to have the ball in his hands at that point. He scored 19 of his 23 points after halftime.

Madsen described what was supposed to happen on that play.

"Create space , allow him to get something at that point," Madsen said. "I believe we were out of timeouts. If I had an extra one I would have taken it."

Cal sent the game to a second overtime when Milos Ilic scored on a follow shot at the overtime buzzer to tie the game 91-91. Cal was given a chance to tie when the Orange's Nate Kingz made just one of two free throws with 9.3 seconds to go.

Justin Pippen fouled out with 3:14 left in the first overtime, and that hurt the Bears, particularly in the second overtime. Cal got behind 26 seconds into the second overtime and the Bears never caught up. There had been 28 lead changes heading into the second overtime, and Syracuse's largest lead of the game was its seven-point advantage at the end of the contest.

Cal center Lee Dort missed his fifth straight game with a lower-body injury, so Ilic made his fifth straight start.

John Camden added 21 for Cal after getting just four points in the loss to Clemson on Saturday. Ilic added 16 points and 14 rebounds, and Pippen finished with 11 points, eight boards and seven assists

Cal forward Chris Bell, who spent the past three seasons at Syracuse before transferring to Berkeley, had 18 points.

Nate Kingz had 27 points for Syracuse, and JJ Starling added 21.

The Orange had lost six of its previous seven games before facing Cal, pushing Syracuse out of the running for an ACC title after a promising 3-1 start in conference play.

Syracuse began the day with a NET ranking of 71, which means that a Cal road win over the Orange would have counted as a Quad 1 win, assuming Syracuse’s ranking remained among the top 75 in the NET. However, a loss to Cal might have pushed the Orange out of the top 75, and only road wins against top 75 teams count as Quad 1 wins.

As of Wednesday morning, Cal had four Quad 1 wins: a home win over NET No. 26 North Carolina (top 30 NET opponent), a neutral court win over No. 39 UCLA (top 50 opponent), a road win over No. 38 Miami (top 75 opponent) and and a road win over No. 68 Stanford (top 75 opponent).

The four most respected experts on NCAA tournament projections are unanimous in the belief that Cal would just barely miss inclusion in the 68-team field if selections had been made Wednesday morning.

ESPN, CBS Sports, NCAA.com and USA Today all placed Cal among the First Four Out in their projections this week, and CBS Sports had the Bears as the first team out.

Cal has six games left before the ACC tournament, so every Cal result as well as results of other teams on the bubble matter for the Bears.

Whether Cal’s result against Syracuse dramatically affected Cal’s NCAA tournament chances is debatable.

Neither team gained much of an advantage in the first half, which ended with the score tied 35-35.

The Bears had a chance to get some breathing room when they led by six points late in the first half. But Ilic missed a wide-open dunk with 3:20 left, and then sent the Orange off an 8-2 run to end the half and tie the score.

Cal shot well from long range, hitting 5-of-10 three-point shots in the first half while Syracuse was just 3-for-16 from deep. However, the Bears committed eight first-half turnovers.

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