Cal has struggled taking care of the ball at different points this season. The Bears once again fell victim to some careless play resulting in their 15th loss of the season Thursday night against Washington State.
Seven first-half turnovers led to a 12-point halftime deficit for Mark Madsen’s squad, and the Bears would only be able to pull within 10 the rest of the way in what ended as an 84-65 loss in Pullman.
“We did not do a good job in the first half of taking care of the basketball,” Madsen said in his postgame radio interview. “We had I think seven turnovers in the first half, they converted 10 points off that. Second half, we had one turnover but we couldn’t get stops.
“Give Washington State credit, they rose up. They made a lot of tough shots, they got to loose balls tonight and we didn’t. But, I was proud of our guys. I was really proud of our guys, because we fought back. We never gave up, and we scrapped and fought the entire game.”
Cal (10-15, 6-8) has looked like a different team from one half to the next in many instances this season, and that was again the case Thursday night.
The Bears were able to get more players involved on the offensive floor over the final 20 minutes, but a few too many breakdowns defensively and a hot shooting night from Washington State’s two biggest stars made the score look much worse than it felt in the contest at Beasley Coliseum.
A combined 30 points from Jaylon Tyson and freshman Rodney Brown, Jr. wasn’t enough to make up for the barrage on the other side as Cougars star freshman Myles Rice (25) and forward Isaac Jones (21) combined for 46 points and 14 rebounds in the game.
In all, WSU (19-6, 10-4) had five players score in double figures and shot 55% from the field in the game. The Cougars were especially effective around the basket with 40 points in the paint compared to just 24 for the Bears.
As much as Cal was able to receive more impactful contributions in the second half, the Bears ended up with just three players in double figures as Grant Newell ended the night with 11 points to go along with four rebounds.
Fardaws Aimaq finished with a game-high 11 rebounds but was just 1 for 7 from the floor to end with six points in the Cal loss.
Washington State closed the first half on a 9-2 run to create some separation, but it was a 10-2 run early in the second half that eventually put the game out of reach. A pair of 3-pointers from Brown and Newell after that run would close the gap to 14 points with 14:18 to play, but the Bears would never be able to get any closer than that the rest of the night.
Seven 3-pointers and a 16-for-20 performance at the free-throw line helped offset what was an otherwise challenging night for the Bears on offense. Cal shot just 38% (21 for 55) from the floor in the loss and finished with just eight assists as a team.
The Bears also lost the rebounding battle, 39-28, and allowed the Cougars to pull down 10 offensive rebounds.
Cal will look to salvage its road trip to the Pacific Northwest when it faces Washington (11-14, 6-8) this Saturday at 5 p.m. PST.
