Cal Basketball Preview: Bears, Huskies Duel to Avoid Last Place in Pac-12

CAL (8-16, 3-14 Pac-12) at WASHINGTON (4-17, 3-13 Pac-12)

WHERE: Alaska Airlines Arena, Seattle, WA

WHEN: Saturday, 7 p.m.

TV/RADIO: ESPNU/810-AM

CAL-WASHINGTON HISTORY: Cal leads 87-82, including an 84-78 victory at Berkeley on Jan. 9. The Bears played that game without Matt Bradley (ankle) but got 22 points from Andre Kelly and 18 from Ryan Betley. The Bears will try to complete their first two-game season sweep of the Huskies since the 2014-15 campaign. Cal has dropped its past three road games vs. UW.

VIDEO ABOVE: Coach Mark Fox talks about sophomore point guard Joel Brown’s play at the defensive end.

CAL STORYLINES: The Bears stagger into this meeting of the Pac-12’s cellar dwellers following an 82-51 loss at Washington State on Thursday. It was Cal’s largest margin of defeat vs. the Cougars in 134 all-time meetings and it came despite WSU playing without leading scorer Isaac Bonton . . . Matt Bradley (18.9 points), who did not play in the first UW game, reportedly was ill early this week and did not start at WSU. He came off the bench to score a team-high 16 points . . . Aside from Bradley, he rest of the Bears combined to shoot just 32 percent from the field and 23 percent from the 3-point arc against WSU.

WASHINGTON STORYLINES: The Huskies will play their fifth game in 10 days in what will be their final home game of the season. UW is coming off a 79-61 loss to Stanford which followed a 65-63 win at Washington State. But the Huskies have won just once in their past seven games . . . UW hopes to continue showing improvement defensively. The Huskies allowed 82.8 points per game through 13 games this season but have given up an average of just 68.8 the past three outings . . . UW is led by senior Quade Green, who averages 14.8 points per game but is coming off a performance against Stanford where he shot just 2 for 9 and scored five points . . . The Huskies are last in the Pac-12 in scoring (66.29 points), just behind Cal (66.33), and are 11th in scoring defense (76.71). Washington also ranks last in the conference in rebounding margin (minus-8.9).

CAL GAME NOTES: Click here

WASHINGTON GAME NOTES: Click here

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

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