Cal Basketball: Bears Snap 10-Game Skid, Earn First Road by Beating Oregon State 63-61

Point guard Joel Brown flirts with a triple-double in Cal's first win since Jan. 2.

Cal put to bed a couple of gruesome streaks with a 63-61 win at Oregon State on Wednesday night.

Jordan Shepherd scored the game-winning basket on a driving layup that was goaltended by the Beavers with 18.4 seconds left.

OSU got three shots on its final possession but could not get any of them to go in.

The Bears (10-15, 3-11 Pac-12) snapped a 10-game losing streak and won for the first time in 10 road games this season. Cal had won just three of 49 previous games on its opponents’ home floor.

Playing their fourth game without senior forward Andre Kelly — out for the season with an ankle injury — the Bears didn’t give in to the losing.

“We had a tough month and then you lose Andre 10 days ago and it’s hard.,” Cal coach Mark Fox said on his post-game radio show. “You have to have the right kind of character.

“Coach (Bill) Walsh built the 49ers with the philosophy that winners behave like winners before they win. These young men weren’t winning but they were functioning like winners so you had to know things would eventually turn around if we did the right thing.”

Shepherd scored 15 points to lead the Bears, who hadn’t won since beating Arizona State on Jan. 2. Grant Anticevich had 13 points and eight rebounds.

Junior point guard Joel Brown contributed nine points, a career-high nine rebounds, seven assists, three steals and just one turnover in 35 minutes. He also spent much of the game defending Jarod Lucas, the Beavers’ best perimeter player, limiting him to 2-for-7 shooting.

“I’m super-proud of Joel. He really competed well tonight and I thought he was probably our MVP,” Fox said. “We had a lot of guys chip in and play well but, boy, he was the difference in this one.”

The game was close throughout, with 10 ties and eight lead changes. Cal never led by more than four points. The Beavers (3-18, 1-10) remain in last place in the Pac-12 after their eighth straight defeat.

A jumper by Shepherd with 1:45 left tied the game at 61-all. OSU turned the ball over for the 14th time on its next possession before Shepherd attacked the basket and put the Bears in front.

Dexter Akanno missed a shot with 5 seconds left and the ball went out of bounds to the Beavers. Jarod Lucas then missed a 3-pointer from the right corner and Maurice Calloo missed the put-back try just before time expired.

“He’s been such a great player,” Fox said of Lucas. “The ball was either going to come to him for a 3 or one of those big athletes at the rim. Joel Brown played super and his defense was the difference in the game, especially on the last play.”

Cal shot just 39 percent in the game but generated 17 second-chance points with 14 offensive rebounds. The Bears also had 10 steals, leading to 11 points off turnovers.

“All those things were good,” Fox said, “and we needed every bit of them to win on the road.”

Cal trailed 31-30 at halftime after shooting 33 percent over the first 20 minutes.

The Bears compensated by getting eight steals — three by Brown — to generate nine points off turnovers. They also grabbed eight offensive rebounds, which they turned into nine second-chance points.

Cal made just 5 of its first 21 shots, then made 5 of 9 the rest of the half. Anticevich scored eight points in the half and Jalen Celestine had seven.

File photo of Cal point guard Joel Brown by Kyle Terada, USA Today

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