MALIBU, Calif. – California suffered a 74-62 non-conference loss to Pepperdine at the Firestone Fieldhouse on Wednesday night despite a combined 48 points from Matt Bradley and Grant Anticevich.
 
Bradley scored a career-high 27 points and surpassed 1,000 career points in the process while Anticevich poured in 21 – two shy of his own career high – but the Bears (2-4) could not overcome hot shooting by their foe for the second straight game on their road trip to Southern California. Pepperdine (3-2) hit 12 3-pointers, including 10 in the first half, and shot 50.9 percent from the field in its first home game against a Pac-12 Conference opponent since 2012.
 
Cal outscored the Waves, 32-30, over the final 20 minutes of play and won the rebounding battle, 35-28, but it was not enough to avoid a third loss in a row.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Pepperdine hit four of its first seven shots, including a three 3-pointers to race out to an 11-3 advantage by the first media timeout. Bradley scored Cal's first five points of the contest and was followed by a flurry from Anticevich, who found his rhythm with 12 points by the 9:09 mark. His layup pulled Cal within five points, 24-19. The Waves' hot hand continued over the remainder of the first half, however, as they raced to a 44-30 lead at the intermission. Anticevich netted 14 of his 21 points in the first half and Bradley chipped in 11.
 
A layup by Anticevich with 5:57 remaining in the game cut Pepperdine's lead to 10, 63-53, but a 3 by Kessler Edwards in response quelled the Bears' 14-8 run. Bradley proved hard to stop throughout the second half, scoring 16 points on 7-13 shooting. A layup by the junior guard with 20 seconds left gave him his career high of 27.
 
Ryan Betley, Makale Foreman and Andre Kelly added four points apiece for the Bears.
 
Edwards led Pepperdine with 26 points and Jan Zidek added 14.
 
NEXT UP
Cal returns to Berkeley to host San Francisco at noon on Sunday, Dec. 13 in the front leg of a basketball doubleheader at Haas Pavilion (Cal women's basketball hosts Stanford at 7 p.m. on Sunday). The Cal-USF game will be televised on the Pac-12 Network.
 
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