Collapse in Corvallis: Bears end regular season with loss to Beavers, 56-74
The movie “Edge of Tomorrow,” where Maj. William Cage, played by Tom Cruise, relives the same day over and over again, must have drawn some inspiration from watching Cal men’s basketball road games, as it’s the same loss every time. Cal shot poorly, committed too many turnovers, and ultimately fell 56-74 to Oregon State on Saturday afternoon.
Both teams started off with terrible shooting in Corvallis. Andre Kelly made the first basket on Cal’s first shot attempt, but only one of the team’s next nine shots fell in the basket. Oregon State started almost as abysmally as it shot 4-14 in its first 18 shots, and both squads combined for 1-11 shooting from three.
The Beavers managed to build a 14-10 lead before freshman Jarod Lucas and senior Tres Tinkle sank a pair of threes to extend Oregon State’s lead to 10. The Bears had no rhythm on offense early and their turnovers contributed to their poor play. The blue and gold gave up 6 turnovers to 1, which Oregon State turned into 13 of its first 20 points.
No one was shooting well in the first half, and Cal’s performance was among the worst of its season. The Bears only scored 10 points in the first 13:30, which was partly due to the absence of their leading scorer Matt Bradley.
The sophomore guard only scored his first points with under three minutes left and shot 1-6 in the first half.
The Beavers appeared to be copying the blue and gold’s strategy in the final minutes of the opening period as they committed 3 quick turnovers to allow Cal to get back in the game. The Bears managed to cut the lead to 5 when the buzzer sounded, trailing only 21-26.
When the dust settled, Oregon State had only shot 9-31, or 29%, in the first half.
Cal junior Grant Anticevich scored the first points of the second half to cut the lead to 3, but senior Kylor Kelley responded with a quick dunk. The Beavers appeared to have fixed their shooting problem and rode the home crowd to bucket after bucket. As the half progressed, they extended their lead to the double digits again and kept it there for most of the second half.
To make matters worse for the Bears, Bradley picked up his third foul with 16:35 remaining in the half and his fourth shortly after with 12:05 left. As a result, he had to sit for several key minutes to avoid fouling out.
With Oregon State leading by 18 points with less than six minutes left in the game, senior guard Paris Austin led a charge for Cal and it managed to cut the lead to 9. Austin finished with a team-high 18 points and 5 assists.
But it was all for naught, as the Beavers and Bears traded baskets back and forth until the score was 53-65. The game finally got out of hand after Bradley blocked a dunk attempt by Gianni Hunt. After the block, Bradley approached Hunt and was assessed a technical foul that ended his night with 8 points on 2-10 shooting. This was his second-lowest-scoring game of the year and lowest in conference play.
After Bradley fouled out, Cal was deflated and Oregon State built its biggest lead of the game. The Beavers cruised through the last few minutes and ultimately secured their seventh conference win of the season.
It was also Senior Night for Oregon State and its seniors had the best performances of the game. Tinkle led all players with 24 points and shot 4-8 from three while Kelley had 19 points on 8-10 shooting to go along with his 8 rebounds.
This game might be the most disappointing of the year for Cal, which had the potential to secure the eighth seed at the Pac-12 tournament next week, but will now enter the conference finale as the 10th seed. The Bears have until the first round of the Pac-12 tournament next Wednesday to see if they can figure out how to shoot on the road.
Trilok Reddy covers men’s basketball. Contact him at treddy@dailycal.org.