Cal Basketball: No. 4 Arizona Roars to Big Early Lead, Cruises to 100-81 Win

Bears trailed by 31 in the first half before scoring 55 points in the second half of their Pac-12 opener.

Cal gets one more chance to win again in 2023, and things have to go better for the Bears than they did Friday night against No. 4 Arizona.

The Wildcats made 13 of their first 16 shots, the Bears missed 13 of their first 16, and Arizona built a 31-point lead late in the first half on the way to a 100-81 triumph in front of a season-best crowd of 5,947 fans at Haas Pavilion.

The Bears (4-8, 0-1), who play Arizona State (7-5, 1-0) on Sunday at 5 p.m., simply weren’t up to the task in their Pac-12 Conference debut under first-year coach Mark Madsen.

“Really phenomenal start to the game (by Arizona),” Madsen said. “Our defense was not good enough. They made shots, they ran it down our throat. And they established a dominant post presence inside.”

Rebuiding a program that has suffered six straight losing seasons and went 3-29 a year ago was never going to be easy. The Bears had shown significant progress at the offensive end, averaging 76 points per game through nonconference play, but the defense still needs a lot of work.

Nothing worked against the Wildcats (10-2, 1-0). Arizona’s size and defensive focus shut down the Bears’ offense and the Cats met little resistance at the other end. Arizona built leads of 12-3, 26-5, 44-17 and took a 54-26 margin into halftime.

“Nobody was surprised. Everybody knew Arizona’s a top-4 team. We knew,” said Cal guard Jaylon Tyson, who had 22 point and 10 rebounds. “The coaching staff had us ready. We just needed to come out and execute the game plan.”

Jalen Celestine said the Bears could not afford to let the Wildcats seize control early.

“They just played hard. They’re always going to come out with that championship-level intensity,” he said. “The first half we just didn’t match it and we can’t wait for the second half to do it.”

Cal missed its first 10 shots from the 3-point arc and got manhandled on the boards on the way to its 14th straight loss to Arizona.

The Bears came alive to start the second half, outscoring Arizona 17-9 over the first 3 1/2 minutes to pull within 63-43. Celestine sparked the surge, scoring nine points.

Cal got no closer than 20 points until the final 20 seconds of the game but the Bears outscored Arizona 55-46 in the second half.

“Our guys battled back in the second half,” Madsen said. “We fought, we scrapped, we had tenacity. I was proud of how the guys responded in the second half. We put two halves together like that, we’re going to be the team we want to become.”

The Wildcats, who resided at No. 1 in the AP Top-25 earlier this month, arrived at Berkeley ranked second nationally in scoring at 92.5 points per game. They wound up with their fourth 100-point outing of the season.

Celestine finished with 14, Grant Newell scored 11 points and forward Fardaws Aimaq had 10 points, six rebounds and three assists before fouling out in 20 minutes.

Jalen Cone, who entered the game leading the Pac-12 in made 3-pointers, missed his first seven from deep before making a couple late.

Guard Caleb Love, a transfer from North Carolina, scored 22 point for the Wildcats. Big man Oumar Ballo had 17 points and 11 rebounds for his third straight double-double.

Cover photo of Arizona center Oumar Ballo being defended by Gus Larson by Darren Yamashita, USA Today

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo