Cal MBB Insta-Recap: Bears struggle to find basket in Salt Lake City. Cal L. 44-74.

1ST HALF:

The Bears started the game slow and unresponsive on defense, and they paid the price. Utah jumped out to a 42-22 lead, led by 24 points in the paint, but balanced with some outside scoring from Bonam and Barefield. Utah also dominated every statistical category over the Bears. Utah had a 18-13 rebounding advantage. Utah had 16 bench points to Cal’s 2. Utah had 12 fast break points to Cal’s 0. Utah only turned the ball over 3 times to Cal’s 8. The Bears ended the half with only 2 FGM on its final 11 shots. Ivan Rabb only had 1 FGA and missed it, but had 6 points after going 6-6 from the line and had 6 rebounds to go along with that. Charlie Moore picked up 3 fouls in 12 minutes of play and put a wrench into the rotation plans. The Bears shot an abysmal 14.3% from 3 and 30% from the field, while Utah shot 51.6% from the field and 30.8% from 3. Cuonzo needed to make adjustments quickly and furiously to claw their way back into this game.

2ND HALF:

The Bears did not look capable of making the comeback and that showed through their lack of execution on offense, and porous defense in transition. Utah increased their lead to 30, and the Bears did not even have the slightest chance at making a comeback. Grant mullins was the only player to score in double digits, and the Bears as a team shot an abysmal 23.1% from the field. Cal also only made 2 of 18 3PT attempts. This is a huge loss for the Bears as a W would have solidifed its hold on the 4th place spot and a First Round Bye for the PAC-12 Tournament.