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Basketball: WSU game thread
By Jeff Faraudo
Saturday, February 13th, 2010 at 12:44 pm in Basketball, Gameday.
FINAL SCORE: Cal 86, WSU 70. Cal scored the game’s final 15 points to break open a game that was 71-70. WSU’s last point came iwth 4:02 left on a putback by Koprivica. Christopher held Thompson scoreless the final 12:48 of the game after he’d scored 28 points. Cal improves to 17-8, 9-4 in the Pac10 and will be alone in first place headed to Oregon this week regardless of what happens elsewhere in the Pac-10 today. Cal is 13-1 at home. Randle finished with 24 points, Boykin had 18 and 11 rebounds, Christopher 19 and terrific defense, and Gutierrez had career-highs of 15 points and six assists and was a total pain in the rear on defense. WSU had 19 turnovers and did not score on its final nine possessions of the game. Had double-digit leads in both games in the Bay Area this weekend and couldn’t close either one. Cougars are 15-10, 5-8 in the Pac-10.
1:37 2nd H: Cal has gone 9-0 since the last timeout and leads 80-70. A technical foul against WSU coach Ken Bone led to two FTs by Randle. Gutierrez made one of two. Then Randle two more at 1:37. It’s probably over.
4:02 2nd H: Cal leads 71-70 after a putback by Koprivica for WSU. Capers has four fouls for the Cougs. No one else with more than 3. Thompson stuck on 28 points. Gutierrez has 13 for Cal, his season high and one off his career best.
7:34 2nd H: WSU leads 66-65, with Robertson going to the FT line for 2 after being fouled by Casto — his first! Randle has 18, Christopher 17, Boykin 14 for Cal. Gutierrez, who came out for a rest a couple minutes ago, is played disruptive defense and has six assists – his career-high. Thompson has 28 points, Casto 13.
11:58 2nd H: A 3-pointer by Randle got Cal within 57-53. Randle has 15 — all on 3-pointers. Thompson has 28 for the Cougars. Christopher is doing his best to stay with him, but the Cougars run him through a maze of screens and he doesn’t need much room to get off a shot. He’s 10-for-15 from the floor. Christopher had 14 for Cal — 8 in this half.
14:26 2nd H: Intensity way up this half. WSU leads 52-48, but Cal us playing harder at both ends. Christopher and Boykin each with six points in the half. Cal got within 45-42, then WSU opened up a 52-44 lead again. But a jumper by Boykin and fastbreak dunk by Robertson off a steal got the Bears back within four.
18:41 2nd H: Boykin has changed the game already. Two offensive rebounds, a putback and a jumper and Cal trails just 45-38. A turnover by WSU and Bears have the ball after timeout. Cal attacking inside from the start of the half. Christopher drove baseline and drew a foul within 16 seconds. The Bears’ plan to be more aggressive is apparent.
WHAT’S NEXT: Cal can’t get to the FT line because everything inside is being blocked. The Bears are 5-for-17 inside the arc, 8-for-14 beyond. How will they reverse the equation in the second half?
MORE FROM HALFTIME: Cal scored 10 points in the game’s first 4:02, then scored just 22 in the next 16 minutes. After making 4-for-6 to open, the Bears are 9-for-25. Expect Cal to play better on defense in the second half, which will improve their offense. Just two nights ago, WSU led by 18 in the second half at Stanford and lost, so anything is possible. But Thompson is playing great, the Cougars are sharing the ball and their long arms are bothering Cal’s shooters.
HALFTIME SCORE: WSU 45, Cal 34. The refs got a good talking-to from Montgomery after the buzzer and fans booed heartily as they went out. A series of unusual calls late in the half, none of it changing one cold fact: Cal played poorly on defense much of the half. WSU shot 65.4 percent. Thompson scored 23 points on 8-for-11 shooting, and didn’t miss in five tries from3-PT. The Cougs, meanwhile, played aggressively on defense, blocking nine of Cal’s 31 FGA. Randle made four 3-pointers, but had five shots blocked. Bears converted 41.9 percent and missed their only two FTs. Will be an interesting second half. You can bet the rest of the Pac-10 is cheering hard right now for WSU.
3:12 1st H: You don’t keep making 3s forever, and as Cal has missed its last four attempts, WSU continues adding to its point total. It’s now 42-32, and Thompson has 23 points. Randle has 12, and his last 3-pointer moved him to No. 3 on Cal’s career scoring list, ahead of Joe Shipp. Right now, the Bears’ problem is defense. WSU has scored 42 points and less than 17 minutes — a scary pace. Cougars are shooting 67 percent from the field and 6-for-8 from 3-PT. Cal down to 46.2 percent, having already attempted 14 3-pointers. Cougars have blocked six shots and are outrebounding the Bears 14-9.
5:53 1st H: Ken Bone just called timeout after back-to-back 3-pointers by Randle and Christopher. It’s 34-29. The two teams are a combined 13-for-17 from 3PT. Pretty amazing.
6:47 1st H: Klay Thompson is wearing out the Bears. He has 19 points on 7-for-10 shooting (5-for-5 from 3PT) and WSU leads 32-23. Three different Cal players have tried defending him — no one has stopped him yet. Cal is shooting 50 percent from the field and is 5-for-7 from 3PT and trailed by nine. WSU: 65 percent from the field, 6-for-7 from 3PT.
11:41 1st H: The Cougars are playing tougher defense than Cal — WSU already has four blocked shots. Cougars are shooting 9-for-12 from the field and lead 22-12. Nikola Knezevic in for Christopher; Randle back for Smith. Monty looking for defense.
12:57 1st H: Thompson has scored eight points in the past 2 minutes and WSU has outscored the Bears 20-2 since the last timeout to lead 20-12. WSU shooting 8-for-11, including 4-for-4 from 3-point. Brandon Smith in for Randle, who is scoreless.
15:20 1st H: A fast-paced start — game is tied 10-10. Cal is shooting 4-for-7. Christopher and Robertson each with 3-pointers. Gutierrez already has a basket, two assists and a rebound. Thompson and Koprivica each have 3s for the Cougs.
STARTING LINEUPS: For the third straight game, Mike Montgomery goes with Jerome Randle, Patrick Christopher, Jorge Gutierrez, Theo Robertson and Jamal Boykin. No changes for WSU, either: Reggie Moore, Marcus Capers, Klay Thompson, Nikola Koprivica and DeAngelo Casto.
WELCOME: Back here at Haas Pavilion for today’s matinee special against Washington State.
Sophomore forward Omondi Amoke, who injured his left shoulder Thursday night against UW, is warming up. Not sure if that means he will play, but he’s dressed and running around. Stay tuned.
I’ll have starting lineups in a few minutes.
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February 13th, 2010 at 12:47 pm
We’ve said it before. You want the place packed, make the seats cheaper and sell more food. Get the students in there for free or $5. The football team has had no problems with marketing. Also, we need to crack the top 25 before people will give a hoot.
February 13th, 2010 at 1:25 pm
Play defense, bears! Refs aren’t calling anything on either side.
February 13th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
8 blocked shots and none were fouls. BS! These refs are such crap again.
February 13th, 2010 at 1:50 pm
Where is Joey complaining about the refs?
Rollon we aren’t going to stay in the top 50 if we play like we are playing today- at home too. If you came to today’s game and spent money to see it how would you feel?
February 13th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
Guess Monty was having a social with the refs at half? Watch the game steve or are you in Texas?
February 13th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
I’m watching the game and the worst call went against WSU at the worst time-even the announcers said it.
Joey you lose all credibility when you whine every single game about the refs- That’s why I predict it each game.
Cal had the best 3-4 final minutes I can remember in a long time- maybe Jason Kidd v Kansas in 90 or so was as good.
Great victory despite the poor first half.
February 13th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
Right on. That 1st half was terrible but the Bears kept playing. The last 3 minutes were just nuts. Go Bears!
February 13th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
There were a few missed calls against Casto, but a large majority of his blocks were clean. The refs weren’t the reason we were down by 11 at the half – blame the defense which allowed a mediocre team to shoot 65%.
February 13th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Yeah the defense was lax in the first half but Thompson was on fire as well. Dude scored 23 in the first half. He was hitting with people in his face. Great win however. The “can win any game – can always come back” attitude from last year is back. Give Jorge a big pat on the back for that.
February 13th, 2010 at 4:15 pm
That’s the way to take charge. The second half was all Bears. I think the Bears have a great shot at winning all of the five remaining regular season games, and they seem to believe it too. The team is getting confident (as a team), and everyone is getting healthy (hopefully Amoke’s shoulder will be OK by Thursday), at exactly the right time. Go Bears!
February 13th, 2010 at 4:27 pm
Good win, but a rather infuriating performance by Cal for a better part of the game. We should have dominated this game like we did in the last few minutes if we had played the game a bit more smart. For instance, it took 32 minutes and i don’t know how many blocked shots before any of our players figured out the trick to slow down a very aggressive blocking machine in Castro, the good ‘ol pump fake. We kept feeding this guy the ball every single time we drove to the rim showing the ball all the way. Turnovers at key points in the game, like the one by Randle, etc. Overall though kudos to the Bears for staying with the game and not giving up. HOW AWESOME IS GUTIERREZ???
February 13th, 2010 at 4:54 pm
Monty has a legitimate complaint. Fan participation (or lack) is ugly for a team that has a reasonable chance to win the P10 championship for the first time in forever. Who cares if this is a down year for the conference, and who gives a F if Cal isn’t a top-25 team? We shouldn’t be that spoiled. Even without the bells and whistles, this is an entertaining team with 3 solid guys and 1 great one who won’t be here next year. Tired of the excuses from fans. It’s not significantly more costly to attend a Cal game than it is to attend a game in Tucson or Gainsville. You can go to the Palace of the Legion of Honor or play golf on Sunday. Be a real fan one time before you die….
February 13th, 2010 at 4:58 pm
….Oh, and great limp-wristed applause for Midge. A true student-athlete and a real hard-ass a la Jorge, and fans give him a ho-hum reception. I guess there were a lot of folks doubling up on their Paxil today.
February 13th, 2010 at 6:04 pm
Hey if you didn’t show up to Haas, it seems a bit rash to complain about the fans. And if you listened to the post-game show, Monty said the fans finally showed up.
February 13th, 2010 at 7:46 pm
Maybe when the TV and radio media starts caring about Bears BB, the fans will. I have light bulbs that use more watts than the radio station that does the play by play puts out. There is one rinky dink TV show that hardly anyone gets, no coaches show, no radio show. A local sports talk station that won’t give Cal the time of day. Even Direct TV showed this game as a womans basketball game on their schedule. Tucson & Gainsville get big time media coverage, we get squat!
February 13th, 2010 at 9:12 pm
Milo,
“Didn’t show up to Haas?” Uh, I’ve been a student and then season ticket holder since my freshman year — 1987. Monty’s praise was qualified, by the way. The fans got off their asses (somewhat) during crunch time. Otherwise they were typically lame.
Rocko,
You’re seriously saying it’s up to the local media with guys like Bob Fitzgerald (Notre Dame), Rod Brooks (LSU), Tom Tolbert (UofA), Ray Ratto (Cal State Dogmeat) and Ralph Barbieri (USF) to stoke interest for Cal basketball? Seriously? If you’re a real Cal fan, I don’t think you need a bunch of carpetbaggers and know-nothings to get your juices flowing. But that’s a pretty unique excuse, I must say. Much more creative than the usual “We have too many things to do in the ultra-sophisticated, ultra-urbane Bay Area to give a sh*t about college sports” excuse. Top marks for that.
February 13th, 2010 at 9:16 pm
Bob Fitzgerald shouldn’t be considered a member of the local media, he’s a Warrior schill. But that’s a different story.
February 13th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
I was at the game. I don’t want to rain on a game that was a win. That was win was great, even though we came nowhere close to playing well for 40 minutes.
The horrible first half by the refs got the fans fired up and when the Bears finally stepped it up, the crowd was ready and was loud and was into it.
However, way too many empty seats. The students, other that the diehards courtside, just don’t seem to care based on the fact that they don’t show. I know it was a 3 days weekend, but all the more reaon to show up- right? You have a whole student body that couldn’t care less based on their absence. Also, alot of the primo, old blue seats on the team benches side remain empty.
This is the season- I couldn’t care less about the NCAA tournament, win the conference. Get the 50 year monkey off of our respective backs.
February 14th, 2010 at 8:28 am
LR do you like baseball? How many CAL baseball games have you attended in the last 10 years? The same for soccer another popular sport. As far as KNBR any mention about college sports would a blessing. They go out of their way not to talk about local college sports.I have turned them on the day after a CAL BB game and no mention of a score whatsover. You have to have fan interest to get butts in the seats. Had we beaten KU, SYU, tOSU or even NM maybe people would be more charged up about CAL BB. When the students, alumni and media don’t give a damn why should I!
February 14th, 2010 at 11:09 am
Rocko,
Well congrats to you for being part of the silent majority that doesn’t give a shit about Cal sports. If you’re that apathetic and so in need of motivation from the media and other fans, why do you waste your time posting here?
BTW, I’ve attended approximately 10 Cal baseball games in the past decade. I suppose I would’ve attended more but I find baseball dull….Not really sure what any of that has to do with the discussion, but you brought it up.
February 15th, 2010 at 8:30 am
Gutierrez is turning into a scoring threat. This team is coming together. I can’t make it to Haas, but I was at Galen. Will go to Staples. They also look good on tv.