Colorado’s first three-game road trip of the season less than a month ago was near disastrous, with an opening win at Oregon on Jan. 25 being followed by two bad losses at Washington and WSU over the next five days.
Kicking off their second and final three-game road swing this year on Tuesday (both trips were made into three-game affairs as a result of contests being rescheduled due to COVID-19), the Buffs blew out Oregon State before Thursday evening’s game against Cal.
In stark contrast to the January trip, this time around, Colorado managed to continue building momentum, with a 70-62 win over the Bears at the Haas Pavilion.
It was only CU’s second victory in Berkeley since joining the Pac-12 Conference, with the win keeping the Buffaloes on their current league winning streak, now up to a season-best four games.
“Life’s about maturity and we showed great maturity winning this game,” Evan Battey told KOA’s Mark Johnson. “Obviously, winning on Tuesday night, but (we’re) just stacking wins and stacking days and really focusing on possessions, not the end result so much.”
A 10-0 run by the Bears about midway through the first half saw Cal get out to a 23-14 lead, which later increased to 11 with only 3:37 to go before halftime.
Leading up to that point, Cal was sinking open looks from deep and in general — the Bears shot 52% from the floor in the first half.
But Tad Boyle ended up switching to a 2-3 zone defense for the last few minutes of the first half and it bore some fruit, as California managed just two points over the last 3:37 of the half, with CU closing the gap somewhat before the final buzzer sounded.
At halftime, Cal led, 35-28.
A tale of two halves might be the best way to describe Thursday’s game.
The Buffs held Cal to a 25% (8-of-32) make rate in the second half, outsourcing the Bears, 42-27 during that time.
“We clawed our way back in by getting stops — that’s what this team did,” Boyle said. “...I’m pleased with this win because I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Cal’s playing better. They really are.”
Colorado also largely neutralized the Bears' Jordan Shepherd, who on the year was averaging 14.6 points per game.
Most recently, in Cal's upset win over Oregon on Feb. 12, Shepherd dropped a carer-high 33 points.
Thursday night, CU held him to seven on 2-of-7 shooting.
Jabari Walker was dominant once again, scoring 19 points with 15 rebounds, good for his fifth straight double-double and his 14th overall on the year.
K.J. Simpson was electric off the bench for the second straight game, as he scored a career-high 18 points on 5-of-9 shooting, which included an 8-of-10 clip from the free throw line.
Colorado began the second half on an 8-0 run, quickly getting out to its first lead of the game, 36-35, at the 16:53 mark, following a layup by Battey.
Shortly thereafter, Battery and Keeshawn Barthelemy hit back-to-back three-pointers, giving the Buffaloes their biggest lead of the night (42-36) just one minute and 15 seconds later.
With 12:50 to play, the Buffs led by only two, 44-42. But over the next six minutes, California managed just three points.
By the 6:34 mark, Colorado had extended its lead to 15 points following four straight points from Walker.
Cal proved to have a bit of fight left in the final few minutes, but for all intents and purposes, Colorado’s lead remained secure.
The Buffs continued their hot streak from the free throw line, sinking 21-of-24 (88%) of their shots, while out-rebounding California comfortably, 43-28.
With a top-four regular season finish, and the first-round bye in the Pac-12 Tournament that comes with it, still very much in play, the Buffaloes turn their attention to the final game of this current road trip: Saturday evening’s tipoff at Stanford.
“Good win for us,” Boyle said. “Now, we’ve just got to build on it. We can’t get drunk on our own wine, as the saying goes. We’ve just got to take it one game and try to figure out, ‘How do we beat Stanford on Saturday?’ That’s not going to be easy either.”
