Cal's Rally Falls Short in a Loss to Cornell

Bears were favored to win but suffered their third straight loss

Joshua Ola-Joseph / Photo courtesy of Cal Athletics

Cal’s loss to Missouri on the road last week was tolerable. The Bears’ home defeat at the hands of Stanford on Saturday was disappointing.  But Cal’s 88-80 loss at home to Cornell on Tuesday was distressing.

The Bears made a valiant comeback effort from a 23-point second-half deficit, and even took the lead briefly. But that did not disguise the fact that they lost to a Cornell team picked to finish fourth in the Ivy League, whose best win this season was against Samford and who lost to Robert Morris earlier this season. This was, quite simply, a game Cal was expected to win and win rather comfortably.

Cal (6-4) was a nine-point favorite at home in this game, and they nearly avoided the upset with a strong second half. It turned out to be the Bears' third straight loss nonetheless. It was also the first time since 1951-52 that Cornell beat a team that was a member of the ACC at the time of the game. The Big Red had lost 42 straight games to ACC members since that win over Wake Forest.

Cal players had a simple response to the loss.

"I thought it was unacceptable," said Cal's Joshua Ola-Joseph, who had a season-high 21 points. "We can't keep starting first halves slow."

Cal played a poor first half against Stanford on Saturday, getting behind by 16 points at halftime and trailing by 20 points with less than six minutes left before making a late comeback to make the final score close.

It was a similar scenario on Tuesday.

"Two games in a row," Cal center Mady Sissoko said. "I feel like we're not learning anything. . . . A game like this is unacceptable."

The Bears trailed by 18 points at halftime, and Cornell (7-3) increasd its lead to 23 points with 18:14 left in the second half.

"They absolutely ran us out of the gym in the first half," Cal coach Mark Madsen said.

And being run out of the gym by Cornell is not a good look. Madsen said several times after the game that he was responsible for the poor showing.

Cal committed 18 turnovers, including 13 in the first half to help Cornell take control.

Asked if there were any positives he could take out of this game, Madsen replied, "I'd say no."

After Cornell took the 23-point lead at 52-29 less than two minutes into the second half, Cal made its move. Cal outscored Cornell 32-13 over the next 9:17 to get within four points at 65-61 with 8:57 remaining in the second half.

Cal got the margin down to two points on Jeremiah Wilkinson's fast-break basket with 5:53 to go, and Andrej Stojakovic's three-pointer at the 5:16 mark put the Bears ahead by a point. That had the crowd of 3,035 aroused. But the lead did not last long as Cornell regained the lead on its ensuing possession.

The score was tied at 74-74 before Cornell's Cooper Noard scored from close range to give the Big Red a 76-74 advantage with 3:19 left.

Cornell's Jake Fiegen converted a three-point play to push the Big Red's lead to five points with 1:34 to go, and AK Okereke scored with 58 seconds left to increase the Cornell lead to 80-74. That ended Cal's chances.

Stojakovic scored 13 points, all in the second half. Wilkinson scored 12 points, all after halftime, and Sissoko had 13 points.

Okereke scored 24 points for Cornell, and Noard had 21.

Cal did little right in the first half, which was dominated by the Big Red.  Cal committed 13 turnovers before halftime and made just 35.7% of their field goal attempts. Meanwhile, Cornell shot 55.4% from the field in the first 20 minutes and committed just six turnovers.   It added up to a 47-29 Cornell lead at halftime.

Ola-Joseph scored 16 points in the first half for Cal, and that was already Ola-Joseph’s season high for an enitire game.

However, Stojakovic, who came into the game as the Bears leading scorer at 19.5 points per game, went scoreless in first half and missed his only field-goal attempt before halftime. He played just eight minutes in the first half because of foul trouble.

Cal shot 43.8% for the game after shooting 50% from the field in the second half. Cornell shot 49.3% from field overall and just 41.9% in the second half.

Cal looks to get back on track in Saturday's home game against Northwestern State, and the Bears will be a heavy favorite in that contest.

NOTES: Cal’s BJ Omot and DJ Campbell were not available for Tuesday’s game because of injuries.  Omot missed his sixth straight game after starting two of the four games he played.  Campbell started the first four games of the season, then missed the next four with an injury before playing just three minutes in Saturday’s loss to Stanford.

Cornell entered the game leading the country in assists per game (20.9) and was ninth nationally in 3-pointers made (11.3) and attempted (31.3). But Cornell was 94th nationally in three-point percentage (36.2%).

Cornell, which was picked to finish fourth in the Ivy League in is preseason media poll, had losses to LaSalle, Robert Morris and Syracuse before facing Cal.  Cornell entered Tuesday’s game with five players averaging in double figures in scoring, led by Nazir Williams, who scored 20 and 22 points in the Big Red’s previous two games. He was a preseason, second-team all-Ivy selection.

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