Cal Loses to Washington State for 10th Straight Defeat

Grant Anticevich ended his shooting slump and Jalen Celestine had a career high in scoring, but that was not enough to end Cal's losing streak as the Bears lost to Washington State 68-64 Saturday afternoon at Haas Pavilion, giving Cal its 10th straight defeat.

Cal made a late run, cutting a 12-points deficit with 7:24 left down to two points with 1:17 to play, and the margin was two points again with 25.5 seconds left when Celestine made a three-pointer. After WSU's Noah Williams missed the front end of a 1-and-1 situation, Cal's Joel Brown missed a shot with six seconds remaining that would have tied it. The Cougars' Michael Flowers then hit two free throws with five seconds remaining to ensure the WSU victory.

It was the fifth straight win for Washington State (14-7, 7-3 Pac-12) while Cal slipped to 9-15, 2-11.

With 10 straight losses the Bears are edging closer to the 16-game losing streak, the longest in school history, that they suffered through in 2018-19. But Anticevich, who was a sophomore three years ago, says this is not the same.

"Incomparable," he said. "We're a good team. We know we're a good team. We played good basketball today; we just need to play a full 40 minutes, so you can't compare it to that at all."

Cal converted four more field goals than the Cougars and hammered WSU on boards with a 41-30 advantage in rebounding that included a 12-7 edge in offensive boards.

"Tough to lose, especially when you make more baskets than they do and outrebounded them," Cal coach Mark Fox said. "We can't play 37 minutes; we've got to play 40, got to play a little more mistake-free."

Cal had a better shooting percentage than WSU (42.6 to 40.0), but Bears committed 14 turnovers to 10 for the Cougars. The difference was at the foul line, where the Cougars were 14-for-17 while Cal was 5-for-5, and at the three-point line.

The Cougars lead the Pac-12 in three-pointers attempted and made per game, and they were 10-for-21 from beyond the arc on Saturday. And the Cougars made five of their first seven three-point attempts in the first nine minutes of the game to take control early.

"Their three-point shooting early in the game obviously was the difference," Fox said.

Celestine had a career-high 20 points for the Bears, and Anticevich came alive offensively. Anticevich had not scored more than eight points in any of his previous eight games, shooting 3-for-24 on three-pointers in that span. But he scored 16 points on Saturday, going 6-for-11 from the field, including 4-for-5 on three-point shots.

"Really good to see him come out of it," Fox said. "Those things don't last forever, but I felt that at times he thought it was going to."

Efe Abogidi led the Cougars with 17 points, 11 rebounds, four steals and two blocks, but Flowers was WSU's top scorer with 21 points, including key free throws in the closing moments.

This was Cal's third straight game without Andre Kelly, who is expected to miss the rest of the season with an ankle injury.

"He's arguably the best big in the conference, so it's a big loss," Celestine said.

Anticevich found his stroke in the first half, when he was 4-for-5 from the floor, including 2-for-2 on three-pointers, while scoring 10 points.

The first half ended with Washington State holding a 33-31 lead, and the Bears let WSU take control after the break. Fox called a timeout just 17 seconds into the second half.

Abogidi made it a nine-point WSU lead on a steal and resulting breakaway dunk at the 10:24 mark, and the lead grew to 12 points with 7:24 remaining.

The Cougars did not make another field goal the rest of the game, going 0-for-8 from the field in the final 7:24. But they made eight of nine free throws in that closing stretch to hang on for the win.

Cover photo of Grant Anticevich by Darren Yamashita, USA TODAY Sports

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

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