Cal Baskeball: Bears Hang With No. 21 Oregon Before Taking New Year's Eve Defeat

Chris Duarte's late scoring burst triggers the Ducks' 82-69 victory

Cal got 21 points from Matt Bradley in his first game in 18 days but the Bears couldn’t sustain their performance for 40 minutes in an 82-69 loss to No. 21 Oregon on New Year’s Eve at Matthew Knight Arena.

The Bears trailed just 65-62 after two free throws by Bradley with 5:36 to play before Chris Duarte took over.

The senior guard, who grew up in Puerto Rico, made four 3-pointers and scored 14 points in the final 5:15 as the Ducks (7-1, 2-0 Pac-12) won their seventh straight game and stretched their home win streak to 27 games.

For the Bears (5-5, 0-3), the final game of 2020 showed their progress and the distance they still must travel to beat a good team.

Cal has now lost 24 of its past 26 road games dating back to the start of the 2018-19 season, and second-year coach Mark Fox said that’s no coincidence.

“The team has to get good enough before you can win on the road.” he said. “Before you can beat a ranked team on the road you’re going to have to be terrific and very complete. We’re still a work in progress.”

The Bears were closer to complete on Thursday after the return of Bradley, their All-Pac-12 junior wing who has missed the two previous games with an ankle injury.

The Pac-12’s leading scorer, Bradley made his first four 3-point attempts and scored 15 first-half points. The Bears led by as many as seven points in the first half before Oregon used a 10-2 burst over the final 85 seconds to take a 36-36 lead into the break.

Cal stayed close but Bradley did not even attempt a shot in the second half until more than 9 minutes had elapsed.

Fox suggested the difference was a greater defensive awareness by the Ducks combined with the layoff Bradley experienced after the injury against USF on Dec. 13.

“Let’s give Oregon some credit. Obviously at halftime I’m sure they talked about how well Matt was playing,” Fox said. “I thought Matt played great in the first half. He probably wore down a little bit just because he hasn’t had that day after day conditioning you have to have.

“Matt played like an upperclassman. But let’s give Oregon a little credit for slowing him down.”

Senior Makale Foreman added 14 points, including four 3-pointers for Cal, but Ryan Betley, who has played well in recent games, shot just 2-for-11, including 1-for-7 on threes.

The Bears also hurt themselves with 17 turnovers, including one that led to Aaron Estrada’s running 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer for the one-point Oregon lead.

Then, with the game still up for grabs, Duarte became unstoppable. He made four 3-pointers in a span of 3:17 as Oregon extended a 65-62 lead to 79-64 with less than 2 minutes left.

Fox went to a zone defense for long stretches to try to neutralize Oregon’s quickness advantage and it worked as long as the Ducks misfired from deep.

“As we started changing defenses and trying to hang in there, (Duarte) got loose a couple times,” Fox said. “But you have to give him credit. He’s a really good player.”

Duarte finished with 19 points and Rutgers transfer Eugene Omoruyi, who averages 18.1, scored 26.

Cal is scheduled to play at Oregon State on Saturday afternoon, but the game seems in question after the Beavers were forced to postponed their Thursday game against Stanford because of a positive COVID-19 test.

Fox said the Beavers are saying they hope to play the game.

“We were told if their testing goes as they think it will, we’ll play the game,” he said. “We’re anticipating we’ll play. If we get a curve ball, we’ll adjust.”

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