Cal Faces Stanford in Bears' Final Home Game

Both teams are coming off a disappointing week of home losses

STANFORD (10-16, 3-13) at CAL (11-17, 4-13)

WHERE: Haas Pavilion, Berkeley

WHEN: Saturday, 5:30 p.m..

TV : Pac-12 Network – Ted Robinson (play-by-Play), Don MacLean (analyst)

RADIO: 810-AM

CAL-STANFORD HISTORY: Cal leads the alltime series 153-129, but Stanford beat Cal 57-50 earlier this season on Feb. 1 at Maples Pavilion. Cal eliminated Stanford from the Pac-12 tournament each of the past two seasons, but the Bears have not defeated the Cardinal in a regular-season game since Jan. 26, 2020 when Cal came away with a 52-50 victory in Berkeley. Stanford has defeated Cal four of the last five times they played at Haas Pavilion.

CAL STORYLINES: This is Cal’s last home game of the season . . . The Bears are coming off two disappointing losses at home last week, losing to Colorado 70-62, then falling to 11th-place Utah 60-58 . . . With three games left, including next week’s road games against Arizona and Arizona State, Cal can finish no higher than tied for ninth and no worse than tied for 11th . . . The Golden Bears are 9-8 at home this season, but they have lost their last seven games at Haas Pavilion, with all those losses coming in conference play . . . The 50 points Cal scored against Stanford in their earlier meeting this season was Cal’s lowest scoring output of the season . . . The Bears will play their eighth game without senior forward Andre Kelly (13.4 points, 8.4 rebounds), sidelined for the remainder of the season by an ankle injury. He has not yet announced whether he will return for the 2022-23 season. The Bears are 2-6 without Kelly, but they recorded their best win of the season – a 78-64 road victory over Oregon – without Kelly . . . Junior center Lars Thiemann has been in the starting lineup in Kelly’s absence, and he had the best game of his career in the loss to Utah, collecting 16 points on 6-for-9 shooting and eight rebounds . . . Jordan Shepherd is Cal’s leading scorer, averaging 14.1 points, but in the two games since scoring a career-high 33 points against Oregon, Shepherd averaged 8.5 points on 4-for-14 shooting. Opponents are focusing their defenses on Cal’s perimeter players with Kelly sidelined . . . Jalen Celstine scored 11 and 10 points in the two games last week and is shooting 38.7% on three-pointers . . . Cal’s best long-range shooter has been freshman Sam Alajiki, who has made 58.8% of his three-point shots, although he has attempted only 34 in his limited playing time. . . Cal ranks last in the Pac-12 in scoring offense, averaging 64.3 points per game. . . In the video above, Cal coach Mark Fox talks about the seven-day layoff between games.

STANFORD STORYLINES: Stanford was in the running for an NCAA tournament berth until the past few weeks. The Cardinal has lost four of its past five games, and its postseason hopes suffered a major blow when it lost both home games last week to Utah 60-56 on Feb. 16, then lost to Colorado 70-53 last Saturday. With three games left, Stanford is now a long shot to make the tournament. . . . Stanford has some impressive wins, having defeated USC twice and Oregon once, but it has not played well lately . . . Cardinal is in eighth place in the standings, but just a half-game behind Washington and Washington State and one game ahead of Arizona State . . . Former Cal player Jerod Haase is in his sixth season as Stanford’s head coach, but the Cardinal has not reached the NCAA tournament in any of his first five seasons and if it fails to get to March Madness again this season, his job might be in jeopardy. Stanford has not finished with a winning Pac-12 record since the 2017-18 season . . . Stanford’s leading scorer and rebounder is 6-foot-7 freshman Harrison Ingram, who is averaging 11.0 points an 6.6 assists. However, he scored only five and two points in the losses to Utah and Colorado last week, when he went 3-for-14 from the field. Ingram might be a late first-round selection if he enters the 2022 NBA draft . . . Jaiden Delaire and Spencer Jones are close behind in scoring at 10.9 and 10.5 points per game, respectively. Delaire and Ingram had 12 points apiece in the win over Cal earlier this season . . The Cardinal ranks 10th in the conference in scoring offense, averaging 67.0 points . . . Stanford is a good rebounding team, averaging 7.6 more rebounds than its opponents, which ranks second in the Pac-12.

CAL GAME NOTES: Click here

STANFORD GAME NOTES: Click here

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Cover photo of Harrison Ingram and Joel Brown by Kyle Terada, USA TODAY Sports

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