The California Golden Bears came into tonight's contest with the Stanford Cardinal with high hopes and, according to Jonathan Okanes of the Cal Bear Blog, the atmosphere matched the anticipation of the game.
Unfortunately, as Okanes also described, Cal wasn't able to solve Stanford's defense on the court as they fell to their rivals 62-53.
The Bears certainly did some things well, most notably one of the things they seemingly always do well - crash the offensive glass. Cal registered 21 offensive rebounds which led to 22 second-chance points. But in the end, the Bears simply couldn't ever get it going offensively against Stanford's impeccable defense...Stanford made it hard for Cal to get its post players going, sagging off the Bears' perimeter players and taking away passing angles inside. The Bears attempted a season-high 21 3-pointers and made only two.
And if you want the brief synopsis, you could probably sum up this game in one sentence: although the Cardinal didn't keep the Bears from getting second chance points, their disciplined defense forced Cal out of their comfort zone.
Well, that and Chiney Ogwumike's 26 points on 11-for-16 shooting without getting a breather.