Given what Oregon accomplished last month — a sweep of then-top 5 programs UCLA and USC in Los Angeles — California’s 78-64 victory over the Ducks Saturday night in Eugene might rank among the biggest Pac-12 upsets of the season.
The Golden Bears will try to validate that result and notch their third straight victory Thursday night when they host Colorado in Berkeley, Calif.
Cal (11-15, 4-11 Pac-12) was a 14 1/2-point underdog at Oregon, but Jordan Shepherd went off for a career-high 33 points on just 15 shot attempts, thanks largely to 13 of 15 work at the foul line. He also added seven rebounds, four steals and three assists.
The Golden Bears canned 52 percent of their field goals, hit 20 of 24 at the foul line and earned a 36-31 rebounding advantage, more than offsetting 17 turnovers.
“I’m really proud of our team,” Cal coach Mark Fox said. “We really played well. We had some burps; we didn’t play perfect, we turned it over too much and we had some errors, but we competed with great belief and execution most of the game.”
Shepherd’s scoring average bumped all the way up to 14.6 points per game after his performance at Oregon. Grant Anticevich is also playing well with averages of 10.3 points and 6.8 rebounds.
Meanwhile, Colorado (16-9, 8-7) opened a critical three-game road trip Tuesday night by whipping hapless Oregon State 90-64. The Buffaloes got 24 points and 15 rebounds from Jabari Walker for his fourth straight double-double.
Four other players scored in double figures for Colorado, which sank 50 percent of its field goal attempts and nearly doubled the Beavers on the glass with a 45-25 advantage.
“When you win going away on the road,” Buffaloes coach Tad Boyle said, “you have to enjoy it.”
Walker leads the team in scoring at 14.5 per game and paces the conference in rebounding at 9.2. Colorado outboards opponents by nearly six per game.
This is the only meeting of the year between the conference foes.
–Field Level Media
