On the eighth anniversary of its one and only meeting with Southern Utah, California looks to make it two straight wins when the schools meet Thursday night at Berkeley, Calif.
The Golden Bears (1-2) got into the win column Monday when they scorched the net at a 66.7-percent clip from 3-point range in a 75-70 home triumph over San Diego.
Not far away in Moraga, Calif., Southern Utah (1-2) began a two-game San Francisco Bay Area visit with a 70-51 loss at Saint Mary’s, failing where Cal had its success, missing 22 of its 26 3-point attempts.
Both teams made seven 3-pointers when Cal thumped Southern Utah 75-47 at home in November 2013.
Cal coach Mark Fox was happy to see his club finally find the range from deep Monday against San Diego, even if the overall performance wasn’t nearly as encouraging. The Golden Bears were just 9 of 34 on 3-pointers in two season-opening losses.
“I don’t know if we played as clean as we did over the weekend,” Fox said of a narrow loss at UNLV, “but we made enough shots to win.”
Several Golden Bears got into the 3-point act. Grant Anticevich was 3 of 3 from distance to account for a majority of his game-high 17 points, while Joel Brown had half his 12 points on two 3-pointers.
Makale Foreman and Kuany Kuany combined for 14 points, all but two coming on 4-of-6 accuracy from beyond the arc.
Southern Utah was outscored 30-12 on 3-pointers to account for almost all its 19-point margin in the defeat at Saint Mary’s. Dre Marin accounted for two of the Thunderbirds’ four 3-pointers but did so in nine attempts.
John Knight III, who did not attempt a 3-pointer, paced Southern Utah with 11 points.
The Thunderbirds have lost two in a row on the road, something that hasn’t surprised coach Todd Simon, who watched his team benefit from 1,300 in the stands in its opening 116-74 win at home over Bethesda on Nov. 9.
“It was great to have live bodies back in the seats and have that excitement when you get on a run,” he said. “It impacts the game like no other sport.”
–Field Level Media
