Cal Basketball: Washington State Routs the Bears
Cal found out why Washington State is a good bet to make the NCAA tournament as the Cougars buried the Bears 84-65 Thursday night in Pullman, Washington.
Washing State (19-6, 10-4 Pac-12) won its sixth game in a row and its only loss in the past 10 games was an overtime defeat against Cal on January 20 in Berkeley. The Cougars are alone in second place in the Pac-12, a half-game behind Arizona, and are in good position to land their first NCAA tournament berth since 2008, when Tony Bennett was WSU's coach.
Cal (10-15, 6-8 Pac-12) was seeking its first season sweep of Washington State in four years. But WSU redshirt freshman Myles Rice and Idaho transfer Isaac Jones made sure that would not happen. Rice scored 25 points on 9-for-16 shooting, including 3-for-4 on three-pointer, and Jones added 21 points on 8-for-10 shooting.
Rice had 23 points with 12:16 left in the game, at which point the Cougars held a 19-point lead.
The Cougars shot 55% for the game, including 58.1% in the second half. The Cougars led by 12 points at halftime, then made 10 of their first 12 shots in the second half to build a 20-point lead with 9:51 left in the game. The Cougars were not threatened thereafter, leading by as many as 23 points with 3:28 remaining.
"You got to give Washington State credit," Cal coach Mark Madsen said. "We did not do a great job in the first half of taking care of the ball. We had seven turnovers in the first half, and they converted 10 points off that.
"Second half we had just one turnovers, but we couldn't get stops. [The Cougars] made a lot of tough shots. They got the loose balls; we didn't. But I was proud of our guys because we fought backs, never gave up."
Jaylon Tyson scored 18 points for Cal, which shot better in the second half but finished shooting 38.2% from the field for the game against a WSU team that leads the Pac-12 in field-goal percentage defense. Cal redshirt freshman Rodney Brown Jr. scored 12 points, one shy of his season high, after going scoreless in the previous three games.
"Rodney Brown was fantastic," Madsen said. "He showed the poise, He showed the confidence."
However, Cal's second- and third-leading scorers, Fardaws Aimaq and Jalen Cone, combined for just nine points on 2-for-15 shooting.
"It wasn't Daws's best game," Madsen said of Aimaq, who finished with six points, tying his season low. "But I know this about Fardaws: Fardaws will be back with a vengeance Saturday night."
Cone's three points on Thursday also matched a season low, tying his three-point output just five days ago against UCLA. He went 2-for-14, including 1-for-9 on three-pointers, over those past two games.
Cal shot poorly in the first half, which ended with Washington State holding a 36-24 lead. The 24 points matched Cal's lowest-scoring first half of the season, tying the 24 points the Bears scored in Saturday's loss to UCLA.
The Bears made just one of their first nine shots and scored just two points in the first seven minutes. They managed to stay in the game, however, and trailed 15-14 when Rodney Brown Jr. nailed a three-pointer.
The Cougars dominated the rest of the half, outscoring Cal 14-5 over the final four minutes to take the 12-point lead into intermission.
Cal shot 32.1% from the floor over the first 20 minutes while Washington State made 51.7% of its shots in that span.
Jaylon Tyson led the Bears with nine first-half points, while Cougars guard Myles Rice led all scorers with 10 points.
The Golden Bears have six regular-season game remaining before the start of the Pac-12 tournament on March 13 in Las Vegas.
Cover photo of Rodney Brown Jr. by James Snook, USA TODAY Sports
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