Cal Basketball: Second-Half Collapse Adds to Bears' Chronic Road Woes in 64-55 Loss
Cal has lost a lot of road games in recent seasons, but perhaps none of them was quite like this.
The Bears trailed just 52-51 with 5:22 left when an ill-timed flagrant 1 foul against Kuany Kuany triggered a game-changing burst by Washington, and the Huskies went on to a 64-55 victory in Seattle on Wednesday night.
Cal contributed to its own problems with five turnovers during a 15-0 UW run that drained all hope from the Bears.
The Bears (9-8, 2-4 Pac-12) lost for the third straight time and fell to 3-42 in their past 45 road games dating back to the 2017-18 season. They are 0-3 in road games this season, 0-5 away from Haas Pavilion.
Washington (7-7, 2-2) has not lost to Cal in Seattle since the 2015-16 season.
Cal led 51-47 after a basket by Andre Kelly with 8:32 left, but the Bears didn’t make another field goal until the final 16 seconds.
Freshman Sama Alajiki goes up for a shot.
Photo by Juan Montermoso
Pac-12 scoring leader Terrell Brown Jr., who had 21 points, scored a three-point play, then made two free throws with 6:35 left to push the Huskies into a 52-51 lead.
Kuany rebounded a missed 3-pointer by Daejon Davis and spun around, hitting PJ Fuller with an elbow. Fuller was directly behind Kuany, who seemed to not even see him when he turned.
Officials watched the video replay and deemed it a flagrant 1 foul, giving two free throws to Fuller, who converted both. Fox appeared unhappy with the call in the moment but later said the refs got it right.
“Kuany’s arms were parallel to the floor. If Kuany’s arms were vertical, it would have been a defensive foul,” Fox said. "Kuany has to learn his arms have to be vertical and not horizontal.”
UW also got the ball, and Brown spun free of Kuany to bury a jumper that completed essentially a four-point play for a 56-51 lead with 5:05 left.
Fuller then made a 3-pointer, stretching the lead to eight points and a drunk and free throw by Nate Roberts made it 62-51 with 3:37 left.
Cal played without point guard Joel Brown, who was sick and stayed home. Without him, the Bears struggled to function on offense.
Washington used its aggressive zone defense to repeatedly steal the ball on the way to a 21-13 lead after 12 minutes.
“Their zone is good — they’re long and athletic,” Fox said. “We don’t have a great shooting team, so we can’t stretch it with the threat of (3-point) shooting as much as we’d like to. We just didn’t play as clean there.”
But Cal made 9 of 10 shots (including a trio of 3-pointers — to close the half, engineering a 34-27 lead at the break.
“Once we stopped turning it over, we finished the half really well,” Fox said.
Cal’s halftime lead lasted less than 8 minutes in the second half. With Kelly going to the bench after picking up his third foul with 15:52 left, the Huskies chipped away.
They finally drew even at 44-all when Roberts flicked loose UW’s 11th steal and Brown scored on a fast break layup and converted the ensuing free throw with 12:17 left.
“The second half, we didn’t play well,” Fox said. “Our defense wasn’t as good. We turned the ball over another eight times in the second half. We just couldn’t score.”
There were lots of issues for the Bears:
— They turned the ball over 17 times, leading to 19 Washington points. The Huskies scored 20 fastbreak points, most of those off their 14 steals.
— The Bears were outrebounded 32-23 by the Pac-12’s worst rebounding team. UW, which entered the game with a minus-9.54 rebound margin, had 12 offensive boards.
— Cal did not shoot a free throw in the first half and was outscored 16-3 at the foul line. “We just got worn out again at the free throw line, and that’s disappointing,” Fox said.
Jordan Shepherd was Cal’s only double-figure scorer with 12 points. Cal shot 50 percent from the field, but the turnovers and free-throw disparity were too much to overcome.
UW’s defense effectively bottled up Kelly, who scored just four points on 2-for-7 shooting in 29 minutes.
Because of Brown’s absence, Fox started Jarred Hyder at the point but he is coming off surgery in the offseason and still doesn’t show the quickness we saw at times a year ago. Combo guard Makale Foreman also continues to struggle with a foot injury Fox said will be an issue all season.
Those two combined for four points on 2-for-9 shooting.
Sophomore Jalen Celestine scored eight points and freshman Sam Alajiki had seven, but both of them spent more time on the perimeter than usual because of the lineup shifts.
“There’s no doubt there were some guys in uncomfortable positions,” Fox said. “That’s the hand we’re dealt right now. We’re going to have to figure out how to play without a couple guys.”
In addition to Brown’s big game, which included 18 second-half points, the Huskies got a huge contribution from point guard Davis, the Stanford transfer, who had eight points, seven assists and six steals.
Cover photo of Cal guard Jordan Shepherd by Juan Montermoso
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
