Break Out the Champagne, Cal Wins a Basketball Game

Even with their top scorer unavailable, Bears get their first victory in a dominant performance against Texas-Arlington

Cal's 73-51 victory over Texas-Arlington on Wednesday in Berkeley may not get much attention across the nation, but it was cause for celebration for the Bears.

Cal came into the game with an 0-12 record, the only winless Division I team in the country and the worst start in Cal program history. And not only did the Bears manage to break into the win column, but they did it in dominating fashion.

And they did it with their leading scorer, Devin Askew, sitting out the game in street clothes because of a foot/ankle injury.

"Relief," said Lars Thiemann, who scored 17 points on 8-for-10 shooting.

"Joyful," said Joel Brown, who had 17 points, six rebounds and just one turnover while running the offense virtually by himself.

Granted UTA (5-8) is not a basketball power.  The Mavericks were picked to finish 11th in the 13-team Western Athletic Conference in the preseason poll.  But UTA defeated San Francisco in the Bay Area on Monday, and the Bears were without Askew, who is averaging 16.9 points per game.

None of it mattered as Cal rolled, taking a 22-point lead with 11:22 remaining in the game and leading by 28 with 3:25 to go. 

The Bears (12-1) shot 56.5% from the field for the game, while limiting the Mavericks to to 32% shooting. And that included 28.6% shooting by UTA in the first half, when Cal held the Mavericks to 19 points.  UTA is not a great shooting team, and it continued that trend by going 5-for-25 from beyond the three-point line.

The only moment of concern for Cal came in the closing moments of the first half. The Mavericks had reduced their 13-point deficit to six points with 46.9 seconds left before halftime.  But Cal freshman Grant Newell nailed a three-point shot with 18 seconds to go to break the Mavericks' momentum and push the halftime lead to nine points.

Cal dominated the second half.

So is coach Mark Fox, who has been taking heat for the Bears' early losing streak, going to sleep better tonight?

"I haven't lost a ton of sleep," Fox said. "I don't sleep anyway, so I won't sleep tonight. I'm not a big sleeper. I'm just happy for our young people so they can have some peace."

The question, of course, is whether this win is a turning point or just a blip.  The Bears have seven days off before resuming Pac-12 play against Utah on Dec. 29 in Berkeley, and they still have health issues and some obvious deficiencies.

"I'm a big-picture guy," Fox said. "We still have some major issues to overcome."

Askew is expected to return soon, although it's unclear whether he will return for the Utah game. Projected starters Jalen Celestine and DeJuan Clayton have not played all season, and Fox is still hoping to get them back before too long, although there is no timetable for their return.

However, the Bears at least have a starting point.

"Now that we've won we can't get complacent," Brown said. "It's not a Super Bowl. We still have 20-plus games left, so we've got to build on this. Like I said I think it definitely changes the morale within the group for sure."

For the next day or so, the Bears can let the frustation built through the first six week of the season drain from their systems.

"A losing streak like that, very frustraing obviously," Thiemann said. "Hard to keep yourself composed, stay together as a team. I'm very proud of of us that we've done that. We've always stayed together, even though we had a big losing streak."

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Cover photo of Joel Brown by Kyle Terada, USA TODAY Sports

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