The Wrap: Bears end tumultuous season with 58-76 loss to Stanfurd.

It was not a pretty start for the Bears. Four turnovers in the first four minutes. Three forced. Cal was down 4-13 at the first media time out. The Bears somewhat stabilized their offense and defense but missed shots and two more turnovers led to Stanford pushing the lead up to 11 by the second media timeout. Cal was down 13-24 with 11:35 left to play in the half. By halftime, the Bears were down 28-39.

Darius McNeill led the Bears with 19 points on 7-12 shooting and 5-7 from beyond the arc. Darius shattered the school record for made threes by a freshman, originally set by Allen Crabbe, he was tied with Crabbe heading into this game.

The Bears stabilized their ball security by the end of the first half, only committing three turnovers the rest of the way after four in the first four minutes. Cal started to force the turnovers and Stanford finished the half with 10 turnovers. The Bears missed alot of opportunities on offense only knocking down 10 of their 30 shots. Cal also could not get production on the offensive glass, where they have been all season. They only grabbed a total of 15 rebounds, whereas Stanford collected 23 rebounds with 16 defensive rebounds.

Fouls looked to be an issue going into halftime. As a team, the Bears only committed 8 fouls but Juhwan Harris-Dyson, Marcus Lee and Roman Davis were tagged with 2 each.

It only got worse for the Bears in the second half.

Stanford pushed their lead and was up 20 with 14 minutes to go in the second half. By the under 7 minute timeout, Cal was down 45-71 and that was that. The Bears lost all of their offensive firepower in the second half, only making 10 field goals on 41 attempts. (Granted some of those came in the final 2 minutes when Coach Jones went with walk-ons and deep in the bench). Statistically, it was not pretty. Cal shot 28.2% from the field and 28% from 3. Cal only won a handful of categories: blocks and offensive rebounds (by 1) and.... Ok. It was just two, not a handful.

Coach Wyking gave some opportunities to his walk-ons and guys deep on the bench. Derek King made his first three off the season. Jacob Orender scored his first points of the season from the free throw line. It wasn’t the best situation for them to step in, but it was great to see all of the seniors play atleast a minute in the final game of the season.

We have talented freshman. We have a great recruiting class. Let’s believe in the coaching and growth in the off-season.

Next season begins tonight.