Cal Basketball: Bears Blow 26-Point Lead but Beat UC San Diego

Cal let all of a 26-point lead slip away before scratching out a 71-67 victory over UC San Diego on Wednesday afternoon at Haas Pavilion.

Cal had all five members of its projected starting lineup available for the first time this season on Wednesday afternoon, but the reunion nearly turned into a disaster.

The Bears held a 34-8 lead midway through the first half and 17-point advantage at halftime. But UCSD used a 14-0 run early in the second half to get back in the game and took their first lead at 56-55 on a three-point shot by Bryce Pope with 8:56 left in the first half.

The Tritons stretched their lead to three points with 7:19 left, but Cal regained the lead on two Keonte Kennedy free throws with 5:00 remaining.  The Bears then did enough to hang on.

Fardaws Aimaq led the Bears (4-7) with 19 points as the Bears got their fourth win over the season, surpassing their win total of all of last season, when they went 3-29. And the Pac-12 season has not even begun. The Bears start conference play in their next game, a December 29 contest against fourth-ranked Arizona in Berkeley.

Devin Askew, a starter in Cal’s first three games, returned to action after missing the last seven games with an injury, although he was not a starter against UC San Diego. He entered the game with 13:04 left in the first half.

Jaylon Tyson, the Bears’ leading scorer at 20.1 points per game, was not in the starting lineup either, coming off the bench for the first time this season. Jalen Celestine got the start in his place.

It didn’t matter which players were on the court in the beginnig Cal took control early against UC San Diego (6-6). Although beating a UCSD team picked to finish ninth in the 11-team Big West Conference does not seem like a significant accomplishment, it should be noted that the Tritons beat Cal each of the past two seasons.

Cal got off to a hot start, making its first seven shots, five of which were three-pointers. Jalen Cole had nine points 2:18 into the game, and the Bears held a 21-2 advantage with 14:54 remaining in the first half. It helped that the Tritons made only one of their first 10 field-goal attempts.

Cal stretched its lead to 26 points on a breakaway layup by Tyson that put the Bears ahead 34-8 with 8:26 left in the half. UCSD made a push to reduce the margin to 17 points at halftime, when Cal held a 44-27 lead.

The Bears’ lead would have been larger if they had made their foul shots, but they were just 1-for-7 from the line in the first 20 minutes.

UCSD took 28 shots in the first half, and 20 of them were three-point attempts. The Tritons made just six of those long-range shots, though. They had just one two-point field goal in the first 20 minutes.  Cal ended up 7-for-12 from distance in the first half.

It nearly all fell apart in the second half

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