Cal Scores Season-Low 43 Points in Loss to Utah

DeJuan Clayton makes his Cal debut, but the Bears score their fewest points in nearly three years

Cal got a little closer to having its complete roster available as DeJuan Clayton made his Cal debut on Thursday. However, that did not do much for the Golden Bears’ offense, as Cal produced its lowest scoring total in nearly three years in a 58-43 loss to Utah at Haas Pavilion.

Not since a 50-40 loss to UCLA on Jan. 19, 2020, has Cal (1-13, 0-3 Pac-12) scored fewer points than it did on Thursday, but that loss to the Bruins was in Los Angeles. The Bears have not scored fewer points in a home game in nearly 16 years, since a 42-41 defeat against Arizona State on March 3, 2007.

Cal played well defensively. When you hold an opponent to 58 points, which was 15 points below the Utes’ average of 73.6, you expect to win. The Bears just didn’t score enough to make it matter.

A lot of it had to do with Utah’s defense. The Utes (10-4, 3-0 Pac-12) rank fifth in the nation in field-goal percentage defense, allowing opponents to make only 35.7% of their shots coming into Thursday’s game, and after Thursday's game they lead the Pac-12 in scoring defense.

“Both teams tonight played really well on the defensive end,” Cal coach Mark Fox said. “We just didn’t help each other enough offensively to attack a defense as good as theirs. [We] finished with four assists and didn’t finish those little plays around the rim. Missed nine free throws [11-for-20]. I think we’ll look back and say we need to play a lot more efficiently on offense and play clean.”

Kuany Kuany had 11 points for Cal, but no one else on the team scored more than seven.

“We just missed a little bit of the easy ones,” Kuany said. “We got some pretty good looks, especially in the paint. We didn’t convert and we can do better.”

The Bears did play well on defense, especially on the perimeter. Utah came into the game leading the Pac-12 in three-point shooting at 37.5%, but the Utes missed their first 11 shots from long range Thursday and 3-for-19 from beyond the arc.

The other positive aspect of Thursday’s game was the Cal debut of Clayton, the transfer from Hartford by way of Coppin State, who had missed the first 13 games with a hamstring injury suffered in preseason practice.

Fox said he has practiced just three times since suffering the injury.

He entered a Cal game for the first time with 12:29 left in the first half and less than a minute later scored on his first shot attempt, swishing a 17-footer. However, he finished the game just 2-for-10 for five points in 22 minutes of court time.

“He has the knack to get a shot,” Fox said. “I didn’t think he’d have the rhythm to make many today.”

Devin Askew, the team’s leading scorer, also returned Thursday after missing the previous game against Texas-Arlington with a foot injury. But Askew took just three shots from the floor and finished with just seven points, nearly 10 points shy of his average coming in of 16.9 per game.

And Lars Thiemann was not as productive as he has been in recent games. He was averaging 12.5 points per game, but scored just five points on 2-for-8 shooting Thursday. A lot had to do with the Utah player who was guarding him most of the night, 7-foot Brandon Carlson, who is averaging 2.5 blocks per game and made things difficult for Thiemann.

Cal kept Carlson in check for the most part. He finished with 11 points, but a lot of them came after the Utes had taken a sizable lead.

Cal was very much in the game midway through the second half. The Bears had reduced a nine-point halftime deficit to just two points, 33-31, on a Joel Brown bucket with 13:40 left in the game. But Wilguens Exacte nailed a three-pointer that started the Utes on a 13-0 run that got them out of trouble and ended Cal’s hopes of an upset.

The only other Cal player still on the sidelines who might return to action sometime this season is Jalen Celestine, although Fox does not know when he’ll be ready.

“If we can get healthy and whole I think we can make some headway,” Fox said, “but we’re going to have to grow up the hard way.”

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Cover photo of Grant Newell and Branden Carlson is by D. Ross Cameron, USA TODAY Sports

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