MBB11/14/2015 6:37 AM | By: Cal Athletics
California-Rice Postgame Notes
BERKELEY - With tonight's 97-64 California win, the No. 14 Golden Bears are 1-0 to start the 2015-16 campaign. With the win, Cal has now won its last 10 consecutive season openers and its last 11 consecutive home openers. The last time Cal scored 90 points was on Feb. 1 last season against Washington.
Cal is now 2-1 all-time against Rice with the most-recent meeting before tonight a 64-54 win at Rice during the 1974-75 season.
Tyrone Wallace was Cal's leading scorer with 20 points (9-for-12), and he also boasted a team-high eight assists and six rebounds. He moved up on Cal's career scoring list to No. 24, now with 1,216 career points, surpassing Doug True (1977-80). It was Wallace's 17th career 20-point performance, and he has now scored 16 or more points in 24 of his 34 games played.
Officially making their collegiate debuts, Jalen Brown finished with 14 points, while Ivan Rabb also totaled 14 points, along with a game-high 13 rebounds. Rabb was good on six of his eight shots.
After hitting two three-pointers tonight, Jordan Mathews needs 25 more to crack Cal's career top-10 list. He connected on back-to-back three-pointers to push the Cal lead to 33-15 with seven and a half minutes remaining in the first half.
Rice kept it close through the game's first six minutes before Cal went on a 13-0 run starting at the 14:19 mark when Cal led, 14-11. A basket by Mathews gave the Bears a 27-11 lead at the 9:05 mark. The Bears held the Owls scoreless for over six minutes during the run.
Rice called a timeout with 6:42 remaining in the first half after the Bears extended the run to 21-4 and held a 35-15 lead. During the run, the Cal defense held Rice to hit just two of 11 shots.
Stephen Domingo also made his Cal debut tonight, scoring five points and seven rebounds.
As a team, Cal posted seven blocks, with two coming from Rabb, Jabari Bird and Kingsley Okoroh. The last time the Bears garnered five or more blocked shots was against Arizona on March 7of last season with seven, as well.
Cal outrebounded Rice, 48-30.
Tonight's attendance was 10,530.