Cal Loses at Home to Utah Despite Lars Thiemann's Strong Game

Utes win both games against Cal this season, and the teams are now tied for 10th place

Another encouraging performance by Cal center Lars Thiemann and the Bears' impressive late-game rally were overshadowed by an ugly bottom line: Cal lost to Utah for the second time this season, this time at home, dropping a 60-58 decision to the Utes Saturday afternoon in Berkeley.

Earlier this season Utah beat Cal by eight points in Salt Lake City on Dec. 5. It means that half of Utah's conference wins have come against Cal, which slipped to 11-17 overall and 4-13 in the Pac-12 and dropped into a 10th-place tie with Utah (11-16, 4-13).  The Utes swept their Bay Area trip for their first two road wins of the season, while Cal lost both home games this week after sweeping Oregon State and Oregon on the road last week.

Thiemann had a career-high 16 points on 6-for-9 shooting and added eight rebounds, and he outplayed Utah's best player, center Branden Carlson, who was limited to eight points on 3-for-9 shooting and five rebounds. Carlson left the game with 3:34 left in the second half with a right ankle injury and his status for the next game is in question.

"I thought Lars has really played sound basketball, except for the other night [in the loss to Colorado Thursday] he didn't play very well, but he's been pretty consistent," Cal head coach Mark Fox said. "Today he continued to grow and showed how comfortable he is.

"The issue for us, when Lars goes out, we get small really fast."

Cal was playing its seventh straight game without Andre Kelly, who will miss the rest of the season with a severe ankle injury, and Thiemann has shown promise after replacing Kelly in the starting lineup.

Thiemann was a central character in the Bears' late rally,

Cal trailed by 12 points with 14:30 left in the second half, but a Cal surge that included a three-point shot by Grant Anticevich reduced the margin to four points (47-43) at the 8:46 mark.

Carlson scored from close range to end the Bears' burst, and the Utes got the margin back up to 10 points with 6:29 to go. But the Bears continued to make headway and trailed by just four points with 1:42 remaining when Jordan Shepherd made two free throws.

Kuany Kuany cut the deficit to two points by hitting two foul shots with 19.9 seconds left, but Utah's Lazar Stefanovic made two free throws with 11.6 seconds remaining to restore the four-point led.

Jalen Celestine nailed a three-pointer with 5.3 seconds left to make it a one-point game, and Utah's Marco Anthony made the second of two foul shots with 4.3 seconds to go. 

Cal did not get off a good shot after taking the ball out of bounds, as Shepherd was forced to take a 35-foot three-point shot at the buzzer that did not come close.

"I thought Jordan would get a little deeper," Fox said. "We'll have to study it and see why he didn't."

Cal stayed close because it made 19 of 21 free throws for the game, and Utah, the top foul shooting team in the conference, was 14-for-17 from the line.

The Bears shot 39.1% from the floor while Utah made 40% of its shots. Neither teams did much from long range as Cal was 3-for-16 on three-pointers and Utah was 2-for-14. Marco Anthony led the Utes with 13 points, but no other Utah player had more than eight.

The most significant statistic turned out to be bench points as Utah's reserves outscored Cal's backups 21-10.

Fox once again said the difference was the little things, such an unforced turnover here or a missed uncontested shot there.

"I thought we competed hard," Fox said, "and at the end of the night we'll look back and realize that the consequences of some little mistakes throughout the game were great. And once you understand those consequences as a player and as a team hopefully you'll realize there's no such thing as a little thing."

Thiemann had eight points and five rebounds for Cal in the first half, which ended with Utah holding a 32-24 lead.

The Bears made four of their first six shots and had an 11-6 lead, but Cal missed their next six shots while the Utes reeled off 11 straight points to take control. Utah's largest lead of the half was 10 points, which came at the 6:37 mark when Branden Carlson scored his first points of the game.

Utah's bench outscored Cal's reserves 15-0 in the first half.

Lars Thiemann talks about his strong game:

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Cover photo of Lars Thiemann by Rod Edwards, KLC Fotos

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Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

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