It’s all over; Duke eliminates Cal in hard-fought game 68-53

It’s a shame that it had to end this way. The final score of a loss of 15 is misleading; the Bears were close most of the way and were hurt by some poor officiating and a complete and utter lack of size. We went down hard, but we gave the #1 seed a game for a while. That is something to be proud of. I’d also like to give credit to Duke; they have a solid team that was the better team tonight.



The first half started poorly, with the Blue Devils starting out on a 6-0 run. The Bears would tie it at 6-6, and Cal would actually grab a 9-8 lead. All would not go well, with Duke extending the lead to 10 afterwards. The poor play would continue, and the Bears would trail 24-37 going into the half.



Early on in the second, Duke would come out strong but a Robertson 3 brought the Bears within single digits. Duke would not give up much more than that, and they would put away our Bears 53-68.



The Bears had an off night shooting, and it really cost them. Let’s face it; this is not the kind of team that can weather a poor shooting performance, especially against a team like Duke. A solid shooting night would have kept the game close; a game under 40% shooting and missing easy shots frequently. That, and 25% shooting from 3 point land.



The referees did the Bears no favors. While I’m not going to complain too much, I think it’s fair to consider their performance. They did not have an effect on the game; with the way Cal played, they weren’t winning unless Duke played terribly. The Bears had a 18 fouls, compared to 15 for Duke. However, 3 came in favor of the Bears late with the outcome in hand. Many calls came off the ball and/or on charge/block calls that I disagreed with. It also seemed like Zoubek got away with murder on the glass. But I digress.



Rebounding was another crucial part in sinking the Bears. While Duke was almost certainly going to have the rebounding advantage, they dominated the glass. The rebounding edge was 34 to 29, but it seemed a lot more. Zoubek and the Blue Devils got the offense boards when needed and kept Cal completely off the glass.



Nolan Smith did a great job for Duke, both defensively and offensively. Defensively, he held the scoring Jerome Randle to 12 points on 5-12 shooting. Offensively, he scored 20 on 50% scoring.



Notables for Duke: Brian Zoubek, who scored 14 and grabbed 13 boards. Zoubek dominated the glass and was (arguably) the MVP of the game. Singler added 17 points on 50% shooting and also nabbed 5 rebounds. Jon Scheyer was awful, only scoring 7 points. Scheyer shot a terrible 1-11 on the night. Lance Thomas grabbed 9 rebounds for Duke in helping the rebounding advantage.



Notables for Cal: Jamal Boykin, the leading scorer at 13. He did okay defensively, and did grab 11 rebounds. He just didn’t have help. Jerome Randle only scored 12, and never got in any sort of rhythm. He needed to play well, and he didn’t. Patrick Christopher never recovered from a stitched up eye injury early, only adding 2 points. A usually strong rebounder, he only had 4 on the night. Theo Robertson never really asserted himself and only scored 10 points. He didn’t seem comfortable and only shot 3-9 on the night.



The season’s over, but we have a great team to be proud of. The team just didn’t have it, but they still gave a solid effort and kept it close for a time. Go Bears!