Box Score
BERKELEY, Calif. - Shantay Legans, one of four Bears in double figures, posted a career-high 19 points and California shot 57.1 percent from the field en route to a 67-52 victory over San Jose State Tuesday night at Haas Pavilion.
The win pushes Cal's record to 5-2, while San Jose State falls to 3-3. The Golden Bears now have 11 days off for final exams before resuming play Dec. 18 at home against UC Irvine at 8 p.m.
Sean Lampley added 14 points and a team-high six rebounds for Cal, while Joe Shipp had 11 points and Nick Vander Laan 10. Billy Landram led San Jose State with 19 points, while Ben Sanders chipped in 10 points and seven rebounds.
San Jose State jumped out to an 8-0 lead at the 17:12 mark before the Bears battled back and finally grabbed their first lead at 17-15 with 7:50 remaining in the first half. Cal was able to take the lead behind three, three-pointers, including two from Legans. Legans was 5-of-7 from beyond the arc in the game and leads the Pac-10, converting 11-of-17 this season (64.7 percent).
Cal entered the locker room with a 31-25 lead at the half before the Bears were finally able to extend their advantage into double digits in the second half behind 66.7 percent shooting from the floor. The Bears opened the second stanza with a 12-5 run to go up 43-30 with 15:25 to play. The Spartans kept battling back, however, behind the play of Landram, who posted 10 of his 19 points in the second half. Landram matched Legans with five three-pointers as the two teams combined for 16-of-33 from long range.
San Jose State twice cut Cal's lead to seven points but couldn't get any closer than that margin (57-50) with 7:39 to play. At that point, the play got more physical and San Jose State was forced to put the Bears on the line. The Bears major nemesis in the game was foul shooting as they converted only 9-of-18 from the charity stripe but were able to nail 5-of-8 during crunch time. Legans fifth three-pointer and a layup from Vander Laan in the final 1:42 gave Cal the 67-52 win and its biggest lead of the game.
Postgame Coaches' Quotes
Coach Steve Barnes
On SJSU's 20 Turnovers:
"We have got to be stronger with the ball. But we're also working a lot on this offensive stuff, and we made some strides tonight. We were a lot more confident with our shot and we were a lot more aggressive. I never want to take 20 turnovers, but we are going to get more because we are starting to attack. I'm not happy with 20 turnovers, but I thought we made strides tonight."
On SJSU's Defense:
"We weren't aggressive enough. We didn't contest shots hard enough. We've got to make them miss. I thought we put a hand up, but you're talking about some really talented players, and they hit some big-time shots. You have to really go after them."
General Comments:
"I'm extremely disappointed, but I'm not at all discouraged. I thought we were in that game until the end. I've told our guys that you can't let anything break you down. You can't let the crowd or the officiating break you down."
Coach Ben Braun
On San Jose State Being A Scrappy Team:
"San Jose State came out and took advantage of some early misses on our behalf. We rushed a couple of early shots. I thought we played pretty hard today early, but they hung in and got a lead on us early in the game. And, once again, we battled back, but I think that's been a pattern for our team for a couple of reasons. One, we're playing teams which are very scrappy and can play. We're not playing bad basketball teams. At the same time, we're still feeling our way through some things. We were playing a team which spread the floor and utilized the penetration dribble. I thought our guys got too aggressive on the ball without getting proper help."
On the Affect San Jose State's Slow Down Offense Had On Cal:
"This is an age-old argument. Do you soften up in the first 20 seconds and let them run their patterns and really play them hard the last 15 seconds, or do you really stay with the pressure? I felt our team was not as aggressive as I wanted us to be at Colorado. I thought we pressured them (SJ State), tired them a little bit, forced turnovers and some of their shots started not to fall. We chose to be more aggressive. We got burned a few times, but that's really how we'd rather play."
