Cal beats Virginia for first ACC win

Incoming Cal freshman quarterback Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele was on hand at Haas Pavilion for Cal’s basketball game against Virginia on Wednesday night and he witnessed Cal’s first ACC victory.

Cal (8-7, 1-3 ACC) took command in the second half to earn a 75-61 victory over Virginia, ending the Bears’ three-game losing streak in front of a crowd of 3,696. The Cavaliers fell to 8-7 overall and 1-3 in the ACC.

Andrej Stojakovic scored a game-high 23 points, with 19 of those points coming in the second half. Nearly half of his points came from the foul line, as he was 11-for-13 on free throws.

Cal’s Mady Sissoko had nine points, but he had 11 rebounds and four impressive blocks, all in the second half.

Cal led by three points at halftime, then scored the first eight points of the second half to take an 11-point lead with 17:50 left. Stojakovic scored five of Cal’s eight points in that period.

The Bears pushed their lead to 17 points when Stojakovic hit two free throws with 9:53 left in the second half to make it a 59-42 game. Virginia got as close as nine points after that, but the Cavaliers shot just 29% in the second half and couldn’t make up the deficit.

Stojakovic didn’t make a field goal until 19 seconds remained in the first half. But that gave the Bears a 35-30 lead, and they took a 35-32 advantage into halftime. Stojakovic was 1-for-5 from the field in the first half, but made both of his free throws to end the half with four points.

Freshman Jeremiah Wilkinson played just seven minutes in the first half, but he was the Bears’ leading scorer at halftime with eight points. All if his first-half points came within a two-minute stretch immediately after entering the game for the first time with 14:24 left before halftime. His offensive spurt helped Cal rally from an 11–3 deficit to a 13–11 lead, and the teams played evenly the rest of the half.

Cal shot 40% from the floor and the Cavaliers hit 37% of their field goal attempts in the first 20 minutes. Cal committed just two turnovers before halftime, and the Cavaliers turned it over just three times.

NOTES: Cal was fairly healthy for Wednesday’s game, although BJ Omot remains sidelined and there is no indication when or if he will return this season. Andrej Stojakovic played with a wrap on his left (non-shooting) hand.

Virginia’s interim head coach is Ron Sanchez after longtime Virginia head coach Tony Bennett resigned in October. But the Cavaliers play the same defense-first style implemented by Bennett. Virginia entered the game averaging just 61.4 points per possession. game, which was 351st out of the 355 Division I teams ranked. But the Cavaliers are allowing just 61.5 points per game. competition, which ranks 11th in the country.

Isaac McKneely entered the game as the Cavaliers’ leading scorer with 12.3 points per game. game, but three Virginia starters started the day shooting better than 44% from three.

Cal entered the game last in the ACC in both field-goal percentage defense (47.5 percent) and 3-point percentage defense (37.6 percent). The Bears also began the day 339th out of 355 Division I teams in assist-to-turnover ratio at 0.82. You won’t average more turnovers than assists..

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