Tyreese Davis’ layup broke a tie with 24 seconds remaining, Casey Jones grabbed his 14th rebound after a California miss and Eastern Washington held on to extend the Golden Bears’ season-opening losing streak to 10 games with a 50-48 non-conference men’s college basketball victory in Berkeley, Calif., on Wednesday night.
Davis finished with a team-high 14 points, Angelo Allegri added 11 and Jones 10 to complete a double-double for the Eagles (4-5), who won their second in a row.
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Lars Thiemann led all scorers with 16 points for the Golden Bears (0-10), who went without standout Devin Askew, placed in Health & Safety protocols earlier in the day.
Eastern Washington never trailed in the low-scoring affair, and took its biggest lead of the first half at 27-20 on an Allegri buzzer-beating 3-pointer.
The margin was 12 at 34-22 after Cedric Coward drilled a 3-pointer in the fourth minute of the second half before Cal chipped away.
Joel Brown’s free throw with 33 seconds remaining, after he had missed the first attempt, finally drew Cal even for the first time at 48-all.
Instead of milking the 30-second shot clock, Davis then drove straight into the heart of the Cal defense and scored over the taller Thiemann for the difference-making points.
Cal had a chance to tie, but instead went for the win and came up short when Kuany Kuany misfired on a 3-point attempt with four seconds left.
Jones rebounded and was fouled, and when he missed his free throw, the Golden Bears had one more shot. But Brown’s desperation 30-footer was well off the mark, extending Cal’s losing streak.
Allegri and Jones accounted for four of the game’s just seven 3-pointers, with Eastern Washington going 5-for-23, while Cal was just 2-for-15.
Thiemann was 6-for-11 for the Golden Bears, who outshot the visitors 38.6 percent to 38.5 percent. Kuany also scored in double figures with 10, while Brown finished with eight points, a team-high eight rebounds and a game-high five assists.
–Field Level Media
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