Cal Basketball: Gruesome Start Dooms Bears Against Red-Hot Bruins

Cal’s first Pac-12 road game of the season ended with leading scorer Matt Bradley benched and grad transfer Makale Foreman having his left hand or wrist checked by the trainer after taking a hard fall on a layup.

And it ended with a 76-56 loss to UCLA in a game that was almost never in doubt Sunday evening at Pauley Pavilion.

“We just didn’t play well out of the gate. We’ve got to be more ready to play. We were a step behind on every play,” Cal coach Mark Fox said.

Cal is now 2-3 overall, 0-2 in the Pac-12 after losses to the two teams picked to finish at the top of the conference standings. UCLA, the favorite, led by 20 in the first half and won its Pac-12 opener while improving to 3-1 overall.

Bradley, who entered the day averaging 19.5 points, left the game with 11:46 remaining and the Bears trailing 57-40. He did not return.

“We started crawling back in it, you know, and he wasn’t having one of his better nights,” Fox said. “He’s been a good player and we’ll see good moments from him again, I’m sure.

“Just felt like those other guys were battling and until we got really back in it I thought I’d give those kids a chance.”

Bradley finished with 12 points in 23 minutes on 5-for-12 shooting, including 1-for-3 on 3-pointers. He had three rebounds and just one of Cal’s 15 turnovers.

Foreman, meanwhile, had an unusual couple days. The former Stony Brook star led the Bears with 14 points, including 4-for-7 from the 3-point line.

But he barely got to Pauley in time, having flown separately from the Bay Area on Sunday after what Fox called “a snag” involving routine COVID-19 testing.

The full team traveled to southern California by bus on Saturday, in part because the Bears are staying in the area before playing Pepperdine at Malibu on Wednesday.

“I’ll just say we had a snag in the testing process. We had a couple players who were not allowed to travel with us yesterday,” said Fox, who did not identify the other player. “So they didn’t practice yesterday or attend shoot-around today. They joined us for the game tonight. Just a hiccup in the testing process. Fortunately, I think everybody is OK.”

Foreman went down hard after making a fast break layup with 5:17 left and was tended to by Cal’s team trainer. Fox said he hadn’t gotten a report from the trainer, but said, “I think he’ll be fine from the fall tonight.”

The game was settled quickly. UCLA made its first seven shots, eight of its first nine and shot 70 percent in the first half while forging a 40-22 lead. Cal went more than six minutes without scoring during a 15-0 UCLA run that transformed a 16-11 lead into a 31-11 margin.

"You have to give them some credit for that, but obviously our defense was nowhere near where we want it to be,” Fox said. “Offensively, I didn’t think we played with any authority. I thought we played a step behind in every way.”

Fox said the Bruins’ defense forced Cal into indecisiveness at times.

“They’re a great defensive team. Their length certainly bothered us and I thought we turned down some shots,” Fox said. “Against a great defensive team, to get a shot early in the clock you’ve got to take advantage of some of those good looks because a great look may not come.”

Point guard Tyger Campbell had 11 points and 12 assists for the Bruins and Chris Smith scored 21 to lead five players in double figures.

Ryan Betley added 12 points for Cal.

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo

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