Cal hopes to take more from a high-scoring road loss than three previous lopsided home wins when the Golden Bears return to their home floor in Berkeley, Calif., to oppose Presbyterian in a nonconference basketball game Tuesday night.
After thumping Cal State Bakersfield, Wright State and Cal State Fullerton by a total of 65 points, the Golden Bears (3-1) saw a late rally come up short in a 99-96 loss at Kansas State on Thursday.
Dai Dai Ames poured in 25 points against his former team, but the most encouraging aspect of Cal’s loss was the play of Chris Bell. The Syracuse transfer shot 7-for-9 on 3-point attempts en route to 27 points, 12 more than he had in any previous game for the Golden Bears.
Cal, which ranked just 311th in the nation in 3-point shooting percentage at 31.5% last season, connected on 15 of 28 (53.6%) from deep at Kansas State.
While coach Mark Madsen was pleased with his team’s shooting, he was disappointed in its start. The Golden Bears gave up 55 first-half points and trailed by 21 at the break against the Wildcats after having taken an average of a 10.7-point lead into halftime in their first three games.
“I was proud of our guys. We won the second half almost by 20 (points),” he said after the Kansas State game. “But we can’t have a bad start like that on the road against a top team. We’ll get better from this.”
Presbyterian (3-3) will be playing its fourth straight road game, its second on a six-day, three-game trip to California.
Coming off a 20-point loss at South Carolina, the Blue Hose took Sacramento State to the wire on Sunday before falling short 64-62 in the California capital. Jonah Pierce had 12 points and 14 rebounds in the defeat.
Presbyterian led by nine at halftime and then 44-33 in the fourth minute of the second period before scoring just 18 points the rest of the way, eventually succumbing to 3-for-21 shooting from beyond the arc.
Blue Hose coach Quinton Ferrell insisted afterward that the goal of the trip across the country — Presbyterian visits No. 19 UCLA on Friday — is to face adversity and hopefully grow from the experience.
“Obviously we didn’t make any threes. They were uncontested, wide-open threes. You have to take advantage of opportunities on the road,” he said. “Even had we won, there were mistakes that we didn’t like. When you lose, same thing applies. You have to get better.”
–Field Level Media
