(AP Photo/Ben Margot)
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No. 12 California held their final home game of the 2k Sports Coaches vs Cancer Classic Wednesday night and they gave the home crowd quite a send off in their 95-61 blowout of visiting Detroit.
Cal's big three of Jerome Randle (22 pts, 4-8 FG, 2-4 3pt FG, 12-12 FT), Patrick Christopher (18 pts, 7-16 FG, 2-6 3pt FG, 2-2 FT), and Theo Robertson (22 pts, 6-8 FG, 3-4 3pt FG, 7-8 FT) led the Golden Bears to a victory that enabled coach Mike Montgomery to clear his bench and play all 13 players in the victory. Ten players scored, but all contributed to the outcome.
Cal began the game on a 6-0 run with baskets by Randle, Markhuri Sanders-Frison, and Robertson. Detroit would scratch and claw their way back to a 10-9 deficit with 13:49 left in the first period, only to watch the Golden Bears pull away and build a 15-point advantage after nearly 19 minutes of play, leading 40-25.
Again, as they did with Murray State, Cal allowed their opponent to get back into the game. The Titans of Detroit closed the gap to eight points by going on a 7-0 run to close the first period and go into the locker room down 40-32. The run would extend to 11-0 as Detroit came out and scored the first four points of the second half and closed in down by four at 40-36.
Montgomery attributed Detroit's mini come-back to his teams' inability to have a 'killer instinct'. "We gotta' be able to put the foot on the throat when we get a run going," said Cal's head coach. "I think we get a little bit, kinda relaxed a little bit, and say, "Oh boy, we're getting some great shots," and then all of the sudden we make some mistakes, and they make a run back."
This time, instead of trading buckets and prolonging the suspense, Cal went to work by outscoring Detroit 55-25 in the final 19 minutes to gain their second win of the season. The Bears would put together several scoring runs, one being an 11-0 run, that broke the back of the Titans, and enabled Montgomery to take his starters off the floor with six minutes remaining in the game.
"It's always nice to play lots of people," said Montgomery after the game. "I got everybody some time. The first part, when I put some people in, we looked nervous. Some of the guys went in, they dropped balls, balls went through their hands, and that was discouraging. We had some plays at the basket that we could've scored and we just fumbled them. But we gotta' get through that nervousness a little bit and get people in different combinations."
Jamal Boykin had a game-high 10 rebounds, helping Cal to 25 second chance points and 11 points on fast breaks.
After shooting 40% (12-30) in the first half from the field, 25% from the three (2-8), the Golden Bears got back on track in the second half. In the final period, Cal shot 54.8% (17-31) from the field and 55.6% (5-9) from beyond the three-point line.
Part of that second-half proficiency was credited to simplifying the offense, which enabled Cal to get better movement of the ball. "We had to change up some things. We moved the ball a little bit better," Montgomery said.
"We simplified it because we were having problems. Basically, kinda' quit running set stuff and got into some movement stuff and we got Patrick open, we got Theo open a couple of times, we knocked down some three's, and that's when we're hardest to guard when we do that. So we had to simplify what we were trying to do."
Cal will be traveling to New York next to face off with Syracuse at Madison Square Garden.
The men's and women's teams announced the signing of their early recruits. Check back later on Thursday for more about the new Cal Bears. The men signed four players and the women signed three. The women's class is being ranked in the top 10.
For more information on the men's basketball 2010 recruits, go to calbears.com by clicking here.
For more information on the women's basketball 2010 recruites, go to calbears.com by clicking here.
2k Sports Coaches vs Cancer Classic
Next Game:
Syracuse Orange vs California Golden Bears
DATE: Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009
TIME: 4:00 PM PST
LOCATION: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
TELEVISION: ESPN2
RADIO: KFRC 1550 AM
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