Cal coach Mark Fox knows what his team has to do to end a 10-game losing streak.
“We can’t play 37 minutes,” he said. “We have to play 40 and play a little bit more mistake-free.”
The Golden Bears will aim to do that Wednesday night when they visit Oregon State in a matchup of struggling teams that could use a late-season pick-me-up.
Cal (9-15, 2-11 Pac-12) thought it would get that when it mounted a furious rally and nearly wiped out a 12-point deficit Saturday against Washington State. However, the Bears missed a pair of potential tying shots in the final minute and ate a 68-64 home loss.
Jalen Celestine gave Cal a lift off the bench with 20 points and Grant Anticevich also sparkled in a reserve role with 16. However, the Golden Bears wasted a 41-30 rebounding advantage and a slight edge in shooting by getting outscored 14-5 at the foul line.
“It’s tough to lose, especially when you make more baskets than they do and outrebound them,” Fox said. “I thought we did some good things, but not enough to win.”
Jordan Shepherd, who was held to 10 points on Saturday, leads Cal in scoring at 13.8 points per game, but he makes just 37 percent of his shots.
Meanwhile, Oregon State’s nightmare season only got worse Saturday at Colorado, where the Buffaloes canned 57.1 percent of their field-goal attempts and connected on 14 3-pointers in an 86-63 win.
What good news there was for the Beavers (3-17, 1-9) came from freshman Glenn Taylor Jr., who scored a career-high 15 points in his first career start. But with starting point guard Dashawn Davis (ankle) joining three other teammates on the shelf, it wasn’t close to enough. And Warith Alatishe played just six minutes before leaving with a knee injury.
Jarod Lucas is the team’s leading scorer at 13.7 point per game, sinking 40.8 percent of his 3-point attempts. Oregon State is permitting 75.6 points per contest and allowing opponents to hit 46.6 percent from the floor.
–Field Level Media
