Cal Basketball: Golden Bears Close Home Schedule on Senior Day vs. Utah Utes

Bears coming off their best performance of the season vs. Colorado

CAL (12-16, 6-9) vs. UTAH (15-13, 6-10)

WHERE: Haas Pavilion, Berkeley

WHEN: Saturday, 3 p.m.

TV/RADIO: Pac-12 Networks/810-AM

CAL-UTAH HISTORY: Utah leads 17-16 after its 60-45 win over the Bears in Salt Lake City last month. The Utes have won three in a row, all of them by at least 15 points. Cal’s most recent victory came in the quarterfinals of the 2017 Pac-12 tournament when Jabari Bird scored 26 points in a 78-75 win.

CAL STORYLINES: The Bears close out their home schedule after beating No. 21 Colorado 76-62 on Thursday. Cal, which is 11-5 at home this season, was coming off a 35-point loss at Washington last Saturday. In the video above coach Mark Fox explains how the Bears could go from one of their worst games of the season to probably their best. . . . The Bears will honor outgoing seniors Paris Austin (8.6 points, 2.6 assists) and graduate transfer Kareem South (9.1 points), who came to Berkeley from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. South, who started most of this season, came off the bench to score 19 points against Colorado, his highest-scoring game in Pac-12 play. South had averaged just 6.3 points on 25-percent shooting the past 14 games, but was 7-for-12 from the field and made 2 of his 4 threes against the Buffs. . . . Sophomore Matt Bradley (17.8 points, 5.1 rebounds) matched his career high with 26 points against CU. Bradley made 5 of 7 from 3-point range vs. the Buffs and is converting 50 percent from deep over the past five years. He was shooting 36 percent on threes prior to the current stretch. . . . Fox gave freshmen Kuany Kuany and DJ Thorpe their first starts against CU and he was generally satisfied with both in limited minutes, although there is no indication whether they will be in the lineup against the Utes.

UTAH STORYLINES: The Utes arrive in Berkeley having dropped four of their past five games. They lost 70-62 at Stanford on Wednesday and are 1-9 in road play this season, winless on an opponent’s home floor since winning at Nevada in their season opener back on Nov. 5. . . . Sophomore Timmy Allen (17.4 points) is Utah’s only double-digit scorer. He had 21 points in the Utes’ win over Cal early this month and has scored 20 or more 10 times, although just twice in Utah’s past 15 games. The 6-foot-6 forward has six double-doubles. . . . Freshman point guard Rylan Jones, who scored 25 points in a December win over rival BYU, has hit a rough patch. He is averaging 7.6 points and 4.0 assists while shooting just 32 percent the past nine games. Over Utah’s first 19 games, the former 4-star recruit contributed 11.1 points, 4.9 assists and shot nearly 44 percent. . . . The Utes have slipped defensively in recent weeks, allowing 70.8 points on nearly 49-percent shooting the past five games. In six previous games, where they won four times, the Utes surrendered just 60 points per game on barely 41-percent accuracy.

CAL GAME NOTES: Click here

UTAH GAME NOTES: Click here