BERKELEY – The California men's basketball team climbed out of a 22-point second-half deficit but could not finish the comeback in a 71-68 loss to Virginia Tech on Saturday afternoon in Haas Pavilion.
 
Andrej Stojakovic led the rally, scoring 22 of his game-high 24 points in the second half. His 3-point attempt to tie it with two seconds left rimmed out to end the game. Jeremiah Wilkinson added 14 points, including 11 in the second half. The duo scored 30 of the Bears' final 31 points in the game.
 
Cal (8-8, 1-4 ACC), which was coming off its first-ever ACC win against Virginia on Wednesday, lost for the sixth time in the past eight games dating back to the start of December.
 
Jaydon Young scored 14 points, and Tyler Johnson recorded a double-double (11 points, 12 rebounds) for Virginia Tech (7-9, 2-3).
 
Cal missed its first 13 shots of the game and trailed 15-4 before Jeremiah Wilkinson knocked down a 3-pointer with 12:30 remaining in the first half. It didn't get easier offensively in the first half for Cal, which shot 5 of 31 from the floor and 3 of 14 from deep before entering the intermission with a 42-23 deficit.
 
Trailing by 21 nearly seven minutes into the second half, Cal used a 26-7 run – fueled by an early 3-pointer from Joshua Ola-Joseph and 20 combined points from Stojakovic and Wilkinson – to tie the contest at 58-58 with 6:03 to go. The Hokies quickly responded with a 9-0 run of their own to take the lead for good.
 
Stojakovic scored Cal's final 10 points, including a thunderous breakaway dunk following a steal by Rytis Petraitis.
 
UP NEXT
The Bears travel to Tobacco Road next week to face North Carolina (Wednesday, 4 p.m. PT) and NC State (Saturday, 3 p.m. PT). Both road games will be televised on ACC Network.
 
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Tickets for the 2024-25 campaign can be purchased by visiting CalBears.com/Tickets, calling 800-GO-BEARS (462-3277) or emailing goldstandard@berkeley.edu. Fans can support the Golden Bears through the Cal Men's Basketball Excellence Initiative or the California Legends Collective.
 
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