BERKELEY -- The California men's basketball team secured its best start to a season since 1959-60 in ringing up a 97-50 win over visiting Morgan State to improve to 11-1 overall. The Golden Bears also now boast eight straight wins and a perfect record at Haas Pavilion at 10-0. Cal's fifth 90-point game of the year featured a season-best 59.3 percent shooting, with four Bears scoring in double digits tonight. Morgan State is now 2-9 overall.
Cal was enjoying a hot first half, hitting at a 60.7 percent clip to put the visiting Bears in a 50-23 halftime hole. Morgan State was shooting 32.1 percent overall and trailed Cal on the boards 20-13 as the hosts kept its visitor under wraps through those first 20 minutes. Despite an early lull to open the second, Cal got back on course and forged a path to a decisive victory. The Golden Bears finished out the game shooting a season-best 59.3 percent, landing 11 threes along the way and winning the battle of the boards 36-24 while serving up 19 assists. Morgan State finished at 35.8 percent with one 3-pointer made.
Led by
Chris Bell's season-high 28 points, Cal had
John Camden score 23 along with TT Carr's career-high 17 points and
Lee Dort's 12 points. Camden led on the boards with eight rebounds, and Carr dished out nine assists. Morgan State was led by Christian Oliver's 14 points and 11 from Rob Lawson.
"Good team win tonight. I'm proud of our guys. Morgan State came out in the second half and had all the momentum," Cal head coach
Mark Madsen said. "I was proud of our guys to kind of stem the tide and be able to win against a good opponent."
Cal kicked things off with back-to-back
Lee Dort dunks before
Chris Bell buried a 3-pointer and
Dai Dai Ames struck in the lane to build a 12-2 Golden Bear lead seven minutes into the action. Bell worked his way into double digits minutes later, and Ames joined the 3-point effort with a long one that got Cal a 21-9 lead at 9:45.
Lee Dort crossed the double-digit mark next as he put in work in the paint and pushed the Golden Bears out to a 37-19 advantage with four minutes left in the first half. Camden's first three of the night was followed by Milos Ilic's first bucket, lifting Cal ahead 48-23 entering the final minute of the frame. Two free-throw tosses from TT Carr topped things off, and the Golden Bears were up 50-28 on the visiting Bears at the break.
Cal's scoring touch was off the mark as the second half started up, with only two free throws falling until Bell muscled in a score in the paint to make it 54-29 at 16:20. That helped right the ship for Cal, as did a couple more 3-pointers from Camden, and a Bell dunk netted a 64-36 lead for the Golden Bears at 11:30. Carr hit the double-digit mark next and just kept charging en route to his career-high 17 points and nine assists as the Bears wrapped up a resounding 97-50 win.
NEXT: Cal is playing out the calendar year on home turf, looking to keep its undefeated run at Haas Pavilion intact. Next, the Bears have a Sunday (Dec. 21) meeting with Columbia at 2 p.m. to wrap nonconference play for Cal.
NOTABLE:
- With a season-high 28 points,
Chris Bell scored in double digits for the ninth time this season and recorded his fourth 20-point game at Cal.
- TT Carr set new career highs with 17 points and nine assists and recorded his third straight double-digit game.
- Cal shot a season-best 59.3 percent overall.
- This was Cal's fifth game scoring 90+ points this season -- last achieved in 2009-10 with six 90+outings by the Bears.
- With 23 points,
John Camden scored in double digits for the team-best 10th time this season.
- Now with eight straight wins, Cal has its longest win streak since recording nine consecutive in 2008-09
- Cal's 11-1 overall record is its best start since the 1959-60 season, when the Bears went 28-1 before falling in the 1960 national championship game.
- Cal is now 11-0 when holding teams to 72 or fewer points and 7-0 when holding an opponent to under 40 percent shooting.
- Morgan State's 50 points was the fewest scored by a Cal opponent this season.
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