Cal's Poor Shooting Leads to a Home Loss to Syracuse

Bears shoot 17.4% in the first half against a team that had lost three straight; Cal's Andrej Stojakovic misses his fourth straight game

Cal head coach Mark Madsen / Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

Asked after Cal's 75-66 home loss to Syracuse on Saturday night whether he took any solace in the fact that his team never gave up despite fighting an uphill battle the entire game, Bears coach Mark Madsen offered a succinct answer.

"None whatsoever," he said.

Cal lost a game it was expected to win, because its first-half offense was so poor that the Bears could never rally their way out of the mess.

A sizable portion of Saturday's crowd of 5,203 were Syracuse fans, and they saw their team limit Cal to 28.6% shooting for the game and just 17.4% shooting in the first half, when the Orange took control. It was the Bears' second-lowest shooting percentage of the season. Only their 25.5% shooting in the 21-point loss to San Diego State was worse

Cal attempted 35 three-point shots, the most this season, and made only six, which is 17.1%.

"The first half was the best half we've played from a defensive standpoint," said Syracuse coach Adrian Autry.

Madsen had a different take.

"Very bad first half for us," he said.

Madsen said no players were made available to the media after the game because Cal was having a players-only meeting.

The Bears' poor first half, when the Bears (11-11, 4-7 ACC) shot 4-for-23 from the field, gave the Orange a 17-point halftime lead that Cal was unable to overcome in the second half.

It's not as if Syracuse is a defensive powerhouse. The Orange (10-12, 4-7 ACC) came into the game on a three-game losing streak and was 1-8 in games away from home. As of Saturday morning, Syracuse ranked 15th among the 18 ACC teams in field-goal percentage defense, allowing opponents to shoot 45.7% from the field.

But the Orange, which is typically a man-to-man defensive team, played zone for much of the game, and Cal could not solve it.

"Cal is a good dribble-drive team," Autry said in explaining why he went to the zone, "and their three-point percentage was not great."

Cal came into the game making just 27.8% of its three-pointers in ACC play, but on Saturday Cal took more three-point shots (35) than two-pointers (28), and made only six from long range.

Madsen was particularly annoyed that Cal had just four assists.

"I saw some selfish play out there," said Madsen. "I've got to curtail some players' minutes who were not making the extra pass."

"Look we need Andrej back," said Madsen, referring to Andrej Stojakovic, the Bears top scorer (18.9 points per game), who missed his fourth straight game with a hib injury. "Andrej is someone who can drive to the rim and finish with his length. We need another dynamic offensive player."

Regarding when he expects Stojakovic to return, Madsen said, "I can't say if it's days or weeks; I don't anticipate it being a month.."

Freshman Jeremiah Wilkinson and Jovan Blackersher Jr. scored 20 points apiece for Cal on Saturday, but they could not make up for the Bears' poor shooting as a team. Lucas Taylor scored 19 points for Syracuse and J.J. Starling added 18. Those two helped the Orange expand its 17-point halftime lead to 18 points in the first minute of the second half.

Cal then scored 11 straight points, punctuated by a ferocious Wilkinson dunk at the end of a fast break, to cut the margin to seven points.

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But a pair of Starling buckets began a seven-point Syracuse run that put the Orange back in control. Syracuse pushed the lead back up to 18 points with 11:29 to go.

Cal closed the gap to seven points with 6:47 left, and got the deficit down to six points with 1:14 remaining by forcing a series of Syracuse turnovers. But it was too late.

The first half was an offensive disaster for Cal, which made just 17.4% of their shots over the first 20 minutes.  That included 2-for-14 shooting from three-point range, as most of the Bears’ shots came from the perimeter.  It led to a 40-23 Syracuse lead at halftime.

Wilkinson had 10 first-half points for Cal, but he was just 2-for-8 from the field. No Syracuse player scored more than seven points in the first half, but nine Orange players scored.

NOTES: Saturday’s game was the first of three straight home games for Cal, which has nine regular-season games remaining.  Only the top 15 teams in the 18-team ACC will qualify for the conference tournament, to be played in Charlotte, North Carolina, on March 11-15.

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