No. 6 Duke Pulls Away From Cal In Front Of Haas Pavilion Sellout

The result wasn’t what Cal wanted, but nan Bears gave a glimpse of what’s possible, competing good overmuch of nan measurement earlier losing 71-56 to No. 6 Duke successful beforehand of a sellout astatine Haas Pavilion connected Wednesday night.

Cal led for agelong stretches of nan first half and trailed by conscionable 3 points aft 2 free throws by Lee Dort pinch 10:05 left.

The Blue Devils, playing astatine Haas for nan first time, responded pinch a 12-1 burst to return complaint astatine 62-48 pinch conscionable nether 7 minutes left.

The crippled drew 11,201 fans — now capacity for Haas — and Cal’s largest crowd since 2 years agone against USC erstwhile LeBron James showed up to watch boy Bronny. 

The large names connected manus for this 1 included caller shot coach Tosh Lupoi, who sewage a opinionated ovation while addressing fans during a timeout, Cal Chancellor Rich Lyons and Bears all-time scoring king Jerome Randle.

They watched nan Bears (13-5, 1-5 ACC) spell correct astatine nan Blue Devils (16-1, 5-0), forging leads of 7-3, 13-7 and 25-19.

But Duke ne'er fto nan Bears return complaint and utilized a 13-0 tally to adjacent nan first half for a 37-30 lead. Cal sewage arsenic adjacent arsenic 2 points successful nan 2nd but foul problem impacted respective cardinal players and nan Blue Devils pulled distant for their 27th triumph successful their past 28 games against ACC opponents.

The Duke lead reached 66-52 erstwhile freshman Cameron Boozer scored connected a fastbreak layup pinch 5:55 left.

The Bears changeable conscionable 32 percent successful nan 2nd half, making only 1 of 8 tries from nan 3-point arc.

Senior halfway Dort had 14 points and 9 rebounds for nan Bears, John Camden scored 11 points, including 3 3-pointers, earlier fouling out, and Justin Pippen contributed 10 points and 5 steals. 

Boozer, nan ACC scoring leader astatine 22.9 points per game, was held to 4 points successful nan first half. But he came live successful nan 2nd half and vanished pinch 21 points, 13 rebounds and 3 assists.

Sophomore helping Isaiah Evans added 17 for nan Blue Devils.

Cal had nan humble full of 11 turnovers, but Duke cashed them successful for 20 points. The visitors besides held a 44-30 rebounding separator and outscored nan Bears 17-2 connected 2nd chance points.

The Bears played good astir of nan first half, holding nan lead for astir 15 minutes and going up 30-24 lead erstwhile Camden deed a 3-pointer disconnected a provender from DJ Campbell pinch 3:35 to play successful nan half.

But Duke scored nan last 13 points of nan half to zoom into a 37-30 lead earlier intermission. Evans did nan dense lifting, making 2 3-pointers and scoring connected a rotation move successful nan lane for a dunk. He scored 8 of his 12 first-half points successful nan last 1:28 of nan period.

The Bears efficaciously locked up Boozer, limiting him to 4 points connected 2-for-4 shooting. They gave nan ACC scoring leader a mates different looks, sometimes sending a 2nd defender astatine him, forcing him to springiness nan shot up.

Camden and Dort each scored 8 points successful nan half for nan Bears, who had conscionable 1 turnover successful nan game’s first 8 minutes but coughed up 5 much earlier halftime.

Cal returns to action Saturday astatine location against North Carolina. Tipoff is 1 p.m.

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