Cal will visit Arizona State on Thursday night for a Pac-12 Conference contest with a very different feel for both teams than their first meeting.
The Golden Bears hosted the Sun Devils on Jan. 2 in a game that was thrown together after both squads had contests postponed due to COVID-19 protocol.
Cal snapped a seven-game losing streak against Arizona State with a 74-50 win in that meeting. The Sun Devils shot just 32.8 percent from the field, including 17.6 percent (3 of 17) from 3-point range.
At that time, Arizona State was in the midst of losing seven of eight games. Turning the tide, the Sun Devils now have won five of their last six, including a road sweep last week at Colorado and Utah.
Thursday’s game will be the final meeting of the regular season between Cal (12-17, 5-13) and Arizona State (12-16, 8-10).
Cal was swept at home by Colorado and Utah two weeks ago. Arizona State defeated the Utes 63-61 Saturday despite not having leading scorer DJ Horne, who was out with a non-COVID illness.
Horne, who is averaging 12.2 points a game, is expected to play against Cal.
“We have been through a lot as a team and have talked about the adversities we have been through,” Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley said. “We played one of the toughest schedules in college basketball (with non-conference games against Baylor, San Diego State, San Francisco and Creighton) that has prepared us to play our best basketball of the season right now.”
The Golden Bears went on a 10-game losing streak after beating Arizona State and are 3-12 since that game.
They are coming off a 53-39 home win Saturday over rival Stanford behind Jordan Shepherd’s 28 points.
Shepherd scored a team-high 16 points in the win over the Sun Devils in the previous meeting. Horne had 17 points for Arizona State.
“I thought our defense was terrific, and we complemented that with really disciplined shot selection,” Cal coach Mark Fox said of the previous meeting with Arizona State, in which his team shot 50.9 percent from the field and made nine 3-pointers.
–Field Level Media
