The Bears finished out their four-game homestand with a 63-60 loss to the Montana State Bobcats on Thursday, dropping to 2-2 on the season.
Cal’s 16.7 shooting percentage from behind the arc and 41.7 percent from the field led to its season-low, 60-point outing.
However, Jaylon Tyson remained a bright spot in what turned out to be a gloomy night for the Bears. Tyson finished with a game-high 27 points, eight rebounds, two assists and two steals. However, the 6’7” guard didn’t remain perfect as his eight turnovers amounted to half of the team’s total turnovers.
Paired with the 16 turnovers, Cal’s offense lacked the ball movement and found just five assists. Staying ahead in the assist-to-turnover ratio has been a glaring concern as the team has only managed to have a positive ratio in just one of its four games.
“You can’t turn the ball over like that. The first half, our energy was not there. That’s on me as the head coach. I’ll address it. I’ll fix it. Second half, we battled, we fought, we came up short … I felt like we should have played a much different basketball game,” said Cal head coach Mark Madsen.
The lack of assists could be attributed to Devin Askew missing Thursday’s contest with a left foot injury. Askew is among the team leaders in assists, second only to Tyson. Only three Cal players recorded an assist against Montana State, and none more than just two.
The injuries continue for the Bears as Jalen Celestine also missed Thursday’s game with a right foot injury.
Since recording a career-high 21 points in the season opener, Celestine’s name has flown under the radar. The redshirt junior has only scored a combined 11 points in the last two games. When Celestine returns, his contribution and status will be worth monitoring moving forward.
Nonetheless, the blue and gold battled through a 14-point differential and provided themselves with a chance to win the game. A late-game run brought the margin down to just three points.
“We’re frustrated about the loss. The only positive takeaway I would say is that certain guys came in and gave us a spark off the bench … and I did like the way we battled and fought in the second half, which we did not see in the first half,” Madsen said.
With under 10 seconds left in the game, Jalen Cone had two chances to send Cal to overtime but was off-target on both attempts. The transfer guard’s play has been rife with duality: He has shown his ability to light it up from deep, but has also shown poor shooting nights.
Cone had his worst shooting performance as a member of the Bears, scoring in the single digits for the first time this season.
“The coaching staff told us (Montana State) was going to come in here and fight and I’ll take the blame for that. I’m the captain. We didn’t come out prepared. We did not step into this arena ready to play tonight and I’ll take that one,” Cone said. “We got to come out fighting every game like we’re the underdog … it was just horrible basketball on our end.”
The 2-2 Bears will hit the road for the first time this season as they look to face UTEP on Monday to begin their SoCal Challenge.
