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Cal Stuns Oregon in Eugene as Jordan Shepherd Scores 33

Bears' 24-0 run in first half sets up biggest win since Mark Fox became coach. He said afterward, 'We expected to win'
Jake Curtis|
Cal Stuns Oregon in Eugene as Jordan Shepherd Scores 33
Cal Stuns Oregon in Eugene as Jordan Shepherd Scores 33

Cal pulled off the biggest win since Mark Fox became the Bears head coach, beating a red-hot Oregon team 78-64 in Eugene, Oregon, on Saturday afternoon.

The Bears' win over No. 21 Colorado two years ago rivals this win, but that game in 2020 was in Berkeley. Saturday's game was on the road, where Cal has struggled in recent years. Meanwhile Oregon has been tough to beat at home at Matthew Knight Arena. And not only did Cal win Saturday, but the Bears won convincingly, holding a double-digit lead the entire second half. 

The Bears' star was Jordan Shepherd, who scored a career-high 33 points, the most points scored by any Pac-12 player this season and the most by a Cal player since Don Coleman scored 35 points in a loss to Wichita State on Nov. 20, 2017..

Cal (11-15, 4-11 Pac-12) picked up its first road win of the season on Wednesday, beating a lousy Oregon State team 63-61. But Saturday's road win was something different. Cal had lost 10 in a row before winning these past two games in Oregon.

A 24-0 Cal run in the first half put the Bears on the path to a major upset over an Oregon team that had won four in a row and 10 of its past 11 games. The Ducks (16-8, 9-4 Pac-12) started the day tied for second place in the Pac-12 and on the bubble for an NCCA tournament berth.

The Bears' win over the Ducks was the biggest upset in the Pac-12 this season.

"I guess no one thought we would win," Fox said, "but it doesn't matter what other people think. And it's not about me; it's about our team and our program. This is about trying to re-establish Cal. And these young people today performed really at a high level to give us a great win, and it's one they can be proud of and one we can build off of.

"But we expected to win. We didn't come here thinking, 'Oh, let's just try to keep it close.' That's not the mentality that we had, and fortunately we had that play-to-win mentality. It helped us become successful today."

Recently Cal has been playing without its best player, Andre Kelly, who is out for the season with an ankle injury, and Saturday's win ended a nine-game losing streak against Oregon and was Cal's first win in Eugene since 2014.

Oregon entered the game leading the conference in three-point shooting at 36%, but the Ducks were just 5-for-27 from long range Saturday.  They shot 37.9% from the field for the game while Cal shot 52%.

Will Richardson scored 22 points for Oregon, all but two coming after halftime. He also had seven turnovers. Jacob Young, Oregon's No. 2 scorer at 11.8 points, scored just two points on 1-for-7 shooting.

Shepherd scored 13 points in the first half, which ended with Cal holding a 38-22 lead. It was the largest first-half deficit for Oregon in the history of Matthew Knight Arena, which is 12 years old.

A remarkable 24-0 run by the Bears midway through the first half turned a seven-point Cal deficit into a 29-12 Cal lead with 7:19 left before halftime. Oregon missed 10 straight shots in that Cal run, which covered 8 minutes, 38 seconds.

The Bears led by as many as 18 points late in the first half, and Shepherd ended the half with a thunderous dunk (below) that gave Cal a 16-point lead at the half.

Richardson, Oregon's top scorer at 15.1 points per game, scored his only basket of the first half with 1:48 remaining and entered halftime with just two points on 1-for-5 shooting while committing four turnovers.

Oregon's Young went scoreless in the first half, missing all three of his shots from the floor and his only free throw attempt.

The Ducks were just 1-for-13 from long distance in the first half Saturday.

Cal increased its lead to 18 points early in the second half, and the Ducks never got closer than 11 points the rest of the way, despite the defensive pressure they applied.

"We really played well," said Fox. "We competed with great belief. Really super proud of these guys to be able to leave here with a win."

Cal did commit 17 turnovers, but made the plays when they needed to be made.

The Ducks were still in contention when they reduced the deficit to 12 points with five minutes left in the game, but Shepherd scored 15 of his 33 points in the final five minutes to keep the Bears safely ahead.

"We decided to keep the ball in Shep's hands, and he really finished the game well," Fox said.

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Cover photo of Jordan Shepherd is by Chris Pietsch, The Register-Guard, USA TODAY NETWORK

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Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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