Cal Wins Opener with Closing Surge

BERKELEY - Despite having six players unable to participate and having to fight foul trouble all evening, Cal held off a game Southern Mississippi Golden Eagle squad, outscoring their opponent 17-5 in the final five minutes of the contest to prevail 67-59 before an opening night crowd of 6,450.

DeVon Hardin returned to the lineup for Cal after missing most of last season with a broken foot, and put up exceptional numbers with 18 points, 14 rebounds (eight on the offensive boards), four blocks and at least three charges taken late in the game. The 14 boards tie his career high set against Northeastern in 2005.

When asked, an obviously happy and energized Hardin said, "Yes, I think I made an impression." He went on to say, however, that he had felt no need to do that in this game, "If I didn't get a point but took charges and blocked shots, that's fine with me."

Patrick Christopher led the Bears in the first half, draining six of ten shots including a pair of treys to post 15 points prior to the intermission. DeVon Hardin chipped in six points and six rebounds, while sophomore guard Sai'Quon Stone led SMU with eight points, half from the free throw line.

The game started quietly enough - in the first 7½ minutes of play, only one foul was called by a veteran Pac-10 crew, but once they found the instructions for their whistles, they got serious about it, calling 45 more in the final 32 minutes of play. It affected Cal for much of the game, but in the end, it got to the Golden Eagles, too.

Ryan Anderson collected two of those fouls within one minute and had to sit with 12:25 left in the first session - and Cal holding a 12-9 advantage. Not long after that Hardin picked up two more in quick succession, but he remained in the game.

"The first foul," explained the senior center, "I tried to take a charge, the second, I couldn't let the man score, but if you are aggressive, you're in the right position to take a charge or make a play on the ball - it did not change the way I played."

Undoubtedly the number that jumped off the page to head coach Ben Braun in the first half was the number of offensive rebounds Southern Mississippi had - zero. Cal held a 20-13 edge on the boards at halftime and a five-point lead at 33-28. Of their 12 baskets, the Golden Bears had racked up eight assists.

A Jordan Wilkes 3-ball with 5:20 left in the first period gave Cal the biggest lead of the night at 29-17. Southern Miss then chipped away, cutting the lead to five at 30-25 in the next three minutes

As Cal was making its way to the locker room at halftime, Ryan Anderson's vision in his left eye suddenly blurred - and almost stopped.

GoldenBearSports.com Hardin in Combat

"I thought I could play through it - I wanted to play through it," Anderson said. He said after the game that he had a similar event once in high school. Anderson came out on the floor to start the second half, but then took himself out at 17:44 with the game tied at 35.

"Ryan's not the kind of player who takes himself out of a game," Braun said. "I kept going down to check on him, not to see if he was ready to play, but to see if he was all right."

Anderson finally returned to the floor when 7:40 remained in the game, with Cal trailing 50-48 at the time. His presence had an immediate effect.

"He turned the game around when he came back in," Southern Mississippi coach Larry Eustachy said. "He's a pro, and he's really hard to defend against."

Braun said he was designing a play for Harper Kamp - a freshman who played 19 solid minutes and got seven points, two rebounds and two assists in his first game for Cal - but when Braun looked around the huddle, Anderson was sitting there instead.

Braun thought to himself, "Well, I guess he's back," as he later deadpanned.

And back he was. Anderson contributed two rebounds, was four-of-four from the charity stripe, and drained a three-ball that put the game into a comfort zone, doubling Cal's lead to six at 63-57 with 1:34 left in the game.

With so many players either unavailable, or sitting because of foul trouble, Braun had to turn to Nican Robinson and David Liss for 10 and 8 minutes, respectively. Robinson had a positive effect, snagging three rebounds and showing great court vision with a pair of beautiful outlet passes that led to baskets, while Liss played under control and added one assist to the team's scorecard without a turnover. Freshman guard Eddie Miller also played 7 minutes.

Nikola Knezevic contributed 33 effective minutes, leading the team on defense. "I thought Nikola did a solid job," Braun said. "I thought he made a lot happen - his penetration was good and he held Jeremy Wise to 3-for-15. It's a tremendous advantage for us to have Nikola defending - Patrick had to go on Beasley down the stretch." Jeremy Wise is a pre-season all-league guard and was the Golden Eagles' leading scorer last season.

The victory gets Cal off on the winning foot, something they have become accustomed to under Braun. The Golden Bears have now won 10 of 12 home openers under coach Braun, who today notched his 203rd win at Berkeley.

Game Notes:

• Patrick Christopher played 37 minutes, and was 8 of 16 from the floor, 2 of 6 from deep, and scored from all areas of the floor.
  
  
• Cal narrowly out-rebounded Southern Miss 40-38, but got 17 offensive boards compared to the Golden Eagles 13.
  
  
• Eric Vierneisel, Ryan Anderson, and Nikola Knesevic all had sub-par evenings from beyond the arc, each getting just one three against 5, 4, and 3 attempts respectively.
  
  
• The Eagles ran into the first real defense of the season; in their prior three games they have been averaging 100 points a game.
  
  
• DeVon Hardin blocked four shots, one of them making it well up into the stands. Hardin clearly loves blasting a basketball way out of the vicinity of the court - and the crowd at Haas loved it too.
  
  
• Cal finally took the lead for good at 55-54 with 4:20 left in the game when Nikola Knesevic drove to the hoop for a lay-up that missed - and then Patrick Christopher's tip bounced out - and DeVon Hardin followed both with an authoritative slam. Bang-bang-bang and Cal had the lead that it would not relinquish.
  
  
• Then came the three baskets that sealed the deal:
  
  
  • Knesevic drove down the right side of the lane toward the north goal - and whipped a sidearm cross court pass to Eric Vierneisel at the left wing who drained a three for 58-54.
    
    
  • Vierneisel drove toward the bucket on that same right side, ran into some tough defense, and tucked a little pass back up through the traffic in the center of the lane - to a driving Hardin who put two more points on Cal's ledger and made it 60-54.
    
    
  • Then following a 3 by SoMiss' Jeremy Wise, Ryan Anderson finally found his range (after recovering his eyesight) and drained a three to push it to 63-57. Game over.

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