California Golden Bears Athletics
California
Colorado
Bears Fall to Colorado, 80-62
12/4/1999 12:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Colorado had three players finish with double-doubles as the Buffaloes rolled to an 80-62 victory over California Saturday night at the Coors Events Center.
Cal fell to 4-2 with the setback, while CU improved to 4-1. The Bears next host San Jose State at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Haas Pavilion.
Against Colorado, Cal jumped out to an early lead, going up by as many as four points behind the hot shooting of freshman forward Joe Shipp. Shipp nailed four three-pointers to stake the Bears to a 19-16 lead 10 minutes into the contest. However, CU took the lead on a short jumper by center Richard Fox at 23-21 and the Buffaloes never trailed again.
Colorado extended its lead to 10 points at 33-23. After Cal cut it to 35-28 with 3:01 left, the Buffaloes scored the final seven points of the half to take a 42-28 lead at intermission. The Bears never got the margin below 10 points the rest of the way and trailed by as many as 25 points at 72-47.
Fox, a who had only played 11 minutes all year entering Saturday's game, finished with 23 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists. Also posting double-doubles were forward Stephane Pelle, who had 10 points and 12 boards, and guard Jaquay Walls, who scored 14 points and dished out 10 assists with no turnovers.
Shipp paced Cal with a career-best 22 points and Sean Lampley added 17 points and nine rebounds. The rest of Cal's starting five, though, combined for just four points (2 by Nick Vander Laan and 2 by Brian Wethers).
The Bears were also hurt by committing 20 turnovers to just six for CU and by being outrebounded, 45-34.
"I'm hoping we learned something," said Cal head coach Ben Braun. "I will not use youth as an excuse. I was disappointed in our effort, not only mentally, but physically. I felt we weren't aggressive enough at all tonight. It's a painful loss, but at least it's early in the year. I hope we can come back from this."
Cal did get solid play off the bench from a pair sources. Center Shahar Gordon played 14 minutes and finished with a career-best seven points and four rebounds, and walk-on Ryan Forehan-Kelly had two points, three rebounds and a steal in 16 minutes of action.
