Cal-Utah Postgame Notes

MBB3/9/2017 4:48 PM | By: Cal Athletics

Cal-Utah Postgame Notes

  • The Golden Bears advance to the semifinals of the Pac-12 Tournament for the second consecutive season and the ninth time in program history. This is the first time the Bears have made back-to-back trips to the tournament semifinals since the 2006 and 2007 seasons.
  • Cal earns its first win over Utah in the Pac-12 Tournament. The Bears lost the previous two tournament meetings with the Utes, including an 82-78 overtime loss in the semifinals last season
  • Cal's win over the four-seed Utes snaps a 24-game winning streak by the higher seeded team in the Pac-12 tournament
  • Cal's 78 points are the most the Bears have scored in any game since putting up 81 points on January 1 against Arizona State. The Bears averaged just 52.3 points per game in their previous three outings
  • For the second consecutive game, the Bears connected on eight three-pointers, going 8-20 from beyond the arc against the Utes. Cal went 8-46 from three-point range (17.4 pct) over the final three games of the regular season.
  • The Bears out-rebounded the Utes 33-25, including a 12-6 advantage on the offensive glass
  • Cal will face Oregon on Friday evening in the tournament semifinals seeking the program's third trip to the tournament finals and the first since 2010. The Ducks swept the regular season series with Bears, including a thriller at Haas Pavilion on February 22 in which Dillon Brooks hit a three-pointer with 0.2 seconds left to give Oregon State a 68-65 victory at Haas Pavilion
  • Senior Jabari Bird matched his career-high with 26 points, set previously in Cal's double-overtime win over Utah on February 2. Coming off a 20-point performance on Wednesday against Oregon State, Bird is the first Cal player to have back-to-back 20-point performances in the conference tournament since Theo Robertson had 20 and 25, respectively, in the semifinals and finals of the 2010 Pac-12 Tournament
  • Bird went 4-6 from beyond the arc and has now made 187 career three-pointers, taking sole possession of fifth-most in program history. The senior guard is 7-12 (58.3 percent) from beyond the arc in the Pac-12 Tournament after going just 5-20 (25 pct) from deep over the final four games of the regular season
  • Freshman Charlie Moore added 21 points for the Bears, his fourth 20-point performance of the season and his first since scoring 22 points on December 10 against UC Davis. With his 21 points, Moore now has 399 points this season, passing Lamond Murray (387) and Jason Kidd (378) for eighth-most by any freshman in Cal history
  • Sophomore forward Ivan Rabb added 12 points and has now scored in double-figures in all four career games at the Pac-12 Tournament
  • Kingsley Okoroh had a game-high 10 rebounds off the bench, his fourth game this season with double-digit rebounds. Okoroh blocked three shots to bring his season total to 70, four shy of breaking Cal's single-season record (David Kravish; 73 blocked shots in 2014)
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