Cal-Oregon Recap: Bears win, but struggle in the first half

Well, nobody said it had to be pretty. The Bears struggled all day long, but they still were able to take out the Ducks 64-49. It wasn’t a spectacular show of shooting, but it was good enough.




Cal opened up strong, taking an early 10-4 lead before Ernie Kent took a timeout. The Bears would try and keep their distance, but Oregon would close to 17-16 on an Armstead jumper. The Bears would hold a 24-23 lead going into the second half, playing very sloppily but still having the lead.



Patrick Christopher scored 4 in a row to start to make it 28-23 and the Ducks would take another timeout. That didn’t help, as the Bears extended the lead to 33-23. The Ducks would close the gap to 6, but the Bears would keep their distance. Oregon would never come closer then 5, and the final was 64-49. The Bears outscored the Ducks 40-26 in the second half.



Jerome Randle played merely okay in the winning effort. He picked up 16 points but turned the ball over 4 times. He only had 2 assists on the day. Randle did hit 4-7 of his 3 point attempts, but he shot 2-6 from 2 point range. He did hold his counterpart Malcolm Armstead to 7 points.



Theo Robertson led the team in scoring yet again, with 16. He was the only Bear who shot at or above 50% (minimum 3 shot attempts), going 4-8 and 3-6 from the 3 point line. He did other things then score too, pulling down 5 rebounds and distributing 3 assists.



Patrick Christopher played one of his worst games of the season. Christopher did have 10 points, but 4 of them came from the free throw line. He shot 3-14 from the field for 21% and went 0-5 from 3. He did make up for it in other categories, recording 3 steals, 7 rebounds, and doing a solid defensive job on the Ducks.



The Bear defense did a terrific job of shutting down the Ducks. In a game where the offense wasn’t hitting on all cylinders, but the defense was. Leading scorer (on the year) Malcolm Armstead scored only 7, and he shot 27% from the field. Tajuan Porter, the second leading scorer (again on the season), only scored 7 on 40% shooting. Oregon as a team shot a mere 34% on field goals and 9% on 3 point attempts.



Max Zhang may have only played 5 minutes, but he made an impact. He scored 8 points, and blocked a shot. He played with new confidence and the way he played he could see some more time.



E.J. Singler was the only Duck who really played well. The 6-6 forward scored 10 points and nabbed 7 rebounds. He was the only Oregon player who shot over 50% (other then Jamil Wilson, who only took 3 shots on the day) and helped his team stay close.



All in all, this road trip produced two of the worst games we played all year. To go 1-1 is something not to be excited about, but it’s not something to be ashamed of either. With USC falling to Washington State, we control our own destiny. Win out, and Cal will have its first outright conference title since 1960.



Go Bears!