BERKELEY – And then there was validation.

Tuesday's 2019-20 season-opener provided the first measuring stick of a new era for the Cal men's basketball team, which spent the offseason working tirelessly under new head coach Mark Fox.

The highest field goal percentage in years, an impressive variety of contributions and a dominant second half demonstrated that it all paid off at least for one night, as the Golden Bears pulled away for an 87-71 victory over Pepperdine at Haas Pavilion.

"We have worked them extremely hard," Fox said. "When you demand that much of somebody as a coach, it needs to work out so they'll do it again. I'm really proud of our players. They deserve a lot of credit for playing super hard tonight. I'm really happy for our team."

The Bears had an up-and-down first half Tuesday, which is arguably expected playing the first game in a new system. But after trailing 37-35 at halftime, Cal blitzed the Waves after the intermission by outscoring them 52-34 and making 71 percent of its field goals. Sophomore Matt Bradley scored 18 of his career high 25 points in the second half after getting into early foul trouble, and the Bears used a 13-0 second-half run to pull away.

"It feels good. We're ready for the next game," Bradley said. "I'm looking forward to the season and seeing what our guys have to bring. Coming into the game, I just wanted to win. I wasn't thinking about scoring or anything else. I just wanted to play hard, and I think that's what I did."

After starting all 29 games last year, senior point guard Paris Austin came off the bench and excelled, scoring 14 points with three assists, four rebounds and no turnovers in 28 minutes. Sophomore forward Andre Kelly, who started 18 games last year, also came off the bench and had his second career double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

Graduate transfer Kareem South also scored 14 points in his first game as a Golden Bear while junior forward Grant Anticevich grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds.

"We're going to have some constantly changing lineups that are matchup driven, and we're also dealing with some injuries," Fox said. "I thought having Paris and Andre come off the bench would be important to us. We're a little thin right now and we wanted to have the bench to have some experience."

Bradley, who set the program's freshman record for 3-point field goal percentage last season at 47.2 percent, tied a career-high with 5-for-7 shooting from beyond the arc. Bradley had a promising freshman season overall with 10.8 points and 3.6 rebounds in 28.4 minutes per game. He added five rebounds and three assists against the Waves.

"He played with some maturity," Fox said. "I had him sit for a couple minutes and it's hard for some young guys to manage that. I talked to him at halftime and told him he wasn't in foul trouble anymore, and to go be aggressive and play like you practice. To his credit, he did just that."
 
The Bears are back in action next Tuesday when they host UNLV at 8 p.m. The game will air on the Pac-12 Networks.