BERKELEY – The California men's basketball team will look to stay hot this week as it opens a two-game road swing through the Pacific Northwest against Washington State at 8 p.m. PST on Wednesday in Pullman, Washington.
 
The Golden Bears (3-13, 2-3 Pac-12) are coming off of three wins during a four-game homestand after an 0-12 start to the season. That homestand was capped by a resounding 92-70 victory over Stanford last Friday in which Cal tied a school record with 16 made 3-pointers and shot 72.7% (16-of-22) from behind the arc.
 
Washington State (7-10, 2-4) enters Wednesday's clash in Beasley Coliseum with plenty of momentum itself after earning the program's first road win against a top-five program with a 74-61 victory at No. 5 Arizona on Jan. 7. The Cougars have won two of their past three Pac-12 contests and three of their conference losses have been by six points or less.
 
Dave Feldman and Adrian Branch will have the call for ESPNU.
 
GAME INFORMATION

• Date & Time: Wednesday, January 11 | 8 p.m. PST
• Location: Pullman, Washington | Beasley Coliseum
• Watch: ESPNU | Dave Feldman (PxP) & Adrian Branch (Analyst)
• Listen: 810 AM & The Varsity App | Rich Cellini (PxP)
• Live Stats: StatBroadcast

 
NOTEWORTHY

• Cal has won back-to-back games for the first time since sweeping the Oregon schools on the road last season on Feb. 9-12, 2022.
• The Bears are averaging 72.0 points per game on 52.6% shooting in the past four games (3-1 record) after averaging 58.0 PPG on 39.4% shooting over the first 12 games of the season (0-12). Cal's 92-point effort vs. Stanford marked the first time it reached 90+ points in regulation since 2015.
• Cal is shooting 51.9% (28-of-54) from 3-point range in four games since Dec. 21, making it the program's fourth-best 3-point field-goal percentage in a four-game span since 1996-97. Meanwhile, the Bears lead all Pac-12 teams and rank sixth nationally in 3FG% defense since Dec. 1, allowing just 26%. Four Pac-12 opponents faced in that span since Dec. 1 (Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Stanford) have shot a combined 23.8% from 3-point range.
• Graduate guard DeJuan Clayton scored 26 points and dished out six assists with zero turnovers in the Stanford win. It was just Clayton's third game played for the Bears after missing the first 13 games of the season due to an injury.
• Senior guard Joel Brown has done a bit of everything for Cal in the past seven games, averaging 10.7 PPG, 3.9 RPG and 3.6 APG while continuing his role as the Bears' top perimeter defender. Brown has scored 13+ points in three of the last five games after doing so just once in his first 100 career games.
• Senior forward Kuany Kuany is averaging 14.3 PPG on 58% shooting (15-of-26) and 6.0 RPG in Cal's 3-1 stretch.
• Starting guard and leading scorer Devin Askew has missed four of the past seven games due to illness or injury. Askew leads all NCAA Division I players for the largest improvement in points per game (+14.0) from the 2021-22 season (2.1 PPG at Texas) to the 2022-23 season (16.1 PPG at Cal).
• Since sweeping Washington State during the 2019-20 season, Cal has lost five consecutive games to the Cougars. The two squads have split their past four meetings in Pullman, with the Bears' last road win at Beasley Coliseum coming on Feb. 19, 2020 (66-57).

 
UP NEXT
Cal will make its way to Seattle to face the Washington Huskies at 3 p.m. PST on Saturday, Jan. 14. The contest will be televised on the Pac-12 Network.
 
STAY POSTED
For further coverage of Cal men's basketball, follow the Bears on Twitter (@CalMBBall), Instagram (@CalMBBball) and Facebook (/CalMBBall/).