On Saturday afternoon, the BC men’s basketball team hosted the Cal Golden Bears at Conte Forum, the last of a 3-game homestand at Conte Forum.
Cal jumped out to an early 15-6 lead after making some quick layups and stifling the Eagles disorganized offense. But BC finally started to find its groove after Jason Asemota hit a three, Aiden Shaw made a nice hook shot in the lane, and Jayden Hastings got to the free throw line. The Eagles narrowed the deficit to 7 points midway through the first half. But that offensive rhythm extinguished as quickly as it started. The next seven offensive possessions went nowhere and Cal hit three-pointers on 3 of 4 possessions. The Golden Bears lead ballooned to 20 points before halftime, eventually settling at 43-28.
The second half was more back-and-forth with Fred Payne paving the way, who finished with 16 points to lead BC’s team. But as soon as BC would score a few buckets, their defense gave out more threes. Chris Bell hit quite a few of them, going 6/10 on the night and ended up with 22 points. The Eagles never narrowed the lead to less than double digits at any point, and eventually Cal broke through with several possessions with drives to the basket and eventually cashing in a Dai Dai Ames three-pointer that put the nail in the coffin. BC’s defense was just never quite enough and Cal was able to race forward with a 86-75 win.
This is the Eagles’ sixth-straight loss, dropping to 9-16 on the season. They next face the FSU Seminoles on Tuesday night in Tallahassee at 6PM ET.