After spotting the Blue Demons early leads of 9-2 and 14-5, Cal played solid
defense through the final 14 minutes of the first half, finishing it with a
31-29 lead. They also followed their pre-game plan well, getting the ball inside
and drawing 11 fouls on the young DePaul squad.
Cal made hay at the charity stripe as they converted eight of their final
10 free throw opportunities after missing three of their first four early in
the half. The Golden Bears were in the bonus situation for almost six minutes
of the first stanza, while they committed just five team fouls themselves.
DePaul did not get to the free throw line in the first half.
Leon Powe led all scorers with nine first-half points, and DeVon Hardin added
six. DePaul guards Jabari Currie and Sammy Mejia each tallied seven at the
break.
Cal, which had worked the ball inside frequently against DePaul's 2-3
zone in the first period, changed tactics at the half and began shooting from
outside the arc. DePaul tied the game at 31 on their first possession of the
second half, but Cal went on an 11-6 run over the next three minutes, including
three three-point baskets, two from Ayinde Ubaka.
As the Bears lived by the three, they also died by it. Part of the game plan
was to get some open looks for senior Richard Midgley, but it was to no avail.
Midgley entered the contest shooting 47% from three-point range and needing
only two long-range buckets to tie Randy Duck for third all-time on the Cal
list. Instead, the usually reliable shooting guard was 0-for-6 from three-point
range.
Don't pin this loss on the gritty native of Burgess Hill, England, though.
"We pride ourselves on defense," said Cal coach Ben Braun in the
post-mortem, "and I thought we let ourselves down in the second half.
They were doubling us in the paint (on offense). We are going to have to deal
with that all year."
Indeed, the team seemed out of rhythm most of the evening. DePaul head coach
Jerry Wainwright was sympathetic to Braun's difficulties.
"I heard Ben say yesterday this is the first game where he's had
everyone available. That's good, but it's also difficult." Wainwright
went on to explain that incorporating new resources means changing playing
patterns and substitution rotations, and forces a team to re-develop its chemistry.
Both teams gave good effort in the game, but they came from opposite sides
of the spectrum. DePaul was playing the fourth game of a four-game road trip - academically
on the quarter system; the Blue Demons have been out of classes all month,
and on the road for about 10 days. While difficult, this tends to bond a team
and develop chemistry and trust.
Wainwright noted how difficult it was for Leon Powe to come back after 629
days between games, as he did November 30: "You can have a million dollar
house up on a hill; if nobody lives in it for two years, it's still worth
a million dollars, but when you turn on the faucet, you're gonna get
some rust."
Wainwright says that both teams are rapidly improving, and he was particularly
impressed with the play of DeVon Hardin. "He plays with great enthusiasm,
and what a physical specimen! If I looked like that, I'd spend all day
walking around in a Speedo."
Without question, Hardin has made tremendous strides in the past year - he
plays with great court presence and poise now, and no longer seems to be a
foul magnet. In the three-guard offense that Braun employs, Omar Wilkes is
clearly a tremendous asset - his outside shooting kept Cal in the game.
Wilkes finished 5-for-10 from the field, and shot 60% from beyond the arc,
tallying 13 points. Ayinde Ubaka led Cal with 16 points, aided greatly by his
4-of-6 three-point shooting.
The Bears controlled the boards throughout, finishing with a 38-29 edge that
was particularly noticeable at the DePaul end of the floor, where the Blue
Demons only tallied six offensive rebounds the entire game. However, they scored
10 second-chance points off those six rebounds; this was where Cal's
defensive failings were most glaring.
In the second half, DePaul took the ball inside more, and it paid great dividends,
as they converted eight of the nine layups they shot in the half. Guard Sammy
Mejia, who led all scorers with 20 points, did much of the damage.
"I thought DePaul got the ball on some isolations and posts at key moments
in the second half. We didn't do a very good job at our post positions
(on defense), and I don't mean just with our post players. We just didn't
get the help," lamented Braun.
His analysis was spot-on. Time and again in the second half, DePaul would
bring the ball into the low post, and instead of turning the attack back into
the paint, the Golden Bear defense would be split without helping out, leaving
a free path along the baseline.
Braun seemed to feel the team lacked some intensity, particularly on defense,
and he was clearly concerned that Cal will open the Pac-10 season having gone
23 days since their last victory.
"Our spirit can't die. The score can't dictate your toughness.
Your team has to play tough the whole game."
Braun, who started the post-game press conference standing behind a lectern,
joked that he would "go back to my teaching days." He was as good
as his word - after most of the media left the room, Braun spent several
minutes earnestly talking to Ayinde Ubaka, who is playing with much more confidence
this season, but who seemed, post-game, to be subdued and rather "down".
Braun repeated to Ubaka what he had already told the press - that the
6-3 non-conference record was a good learning experience, because Cal racked
it up against decent to very good competition, instead of piling up wins against
a soft schedule.
Nevertheless, this was a game that was there for the taking. Solid outside
shooting gave the Bears a seven-point lead with 7:10 left in the game. Then,
instead of putting down the hammer on a young DePaul team, the Bears seemed
to become tentative, then anxious, finally forcing up poor shots and committing
four turnovers in the final 3:22.
Rod Benson had a frustrating evening - while he collected seven rebounds,
including four on the offensive glass, he was only 2-of-7 from the field and
committed five turnovers. Cal entered the game averaging 5.5 fewer turnovers
per game than their opponents. Tonight they had 13 giveaways and only 10 takeaways.
It's a truism that you win close games if you take care of the basketball.
You lose close ones when you don't, and the Golden Bears turned what
should have been a victory into what they hope was a learning experience.
The players head home for the holidays, and will next see action December
29 at USC against a Trojan team that upset 17th-ranked North Carolina, 74-59,
then against UCLA on New Year's Eve Day. The 12th-ranked Bruins narrowly
avoided an upset loss themselves, and will likely be loaded for bear by next
weekend.
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