Cal’s 2025-26 season ended Sunday evening when the Bears blew a 19-point, second-half lead and misplaced to Saint Joseph’s 76-75 in a second-round recreation of the National Invitation Tournament at Haas Pavilion.
This Bears (22-12) led 55-36 with 15:24 to go, however discovered a was to lose.
The Bears last alternative got here when Cal rebounded a Saint Joseph’s miss with seven seconds left, sending Dai Dai Ames on a fast-break alternative. But his off-balance layup was blocked by Jaiden Glover-Toscano on the buzzer.
The Hawks will play an NIT quarterfinal recreation on Tuesday or Wednesday in opposition to New Mexico, which defeated George Washington 86-61 in the Lobos’ second-round recreation Sunday.
Cal performed Sunday’s recreation with out John Camden, who was sidelined with an damage. Nolan Dorsey took Camden’s place in the beginning lineup.
Cal’s Chris Bell made up for Camden’s absence by scoring 23 factors. He was 7-for-8 on three-pointers in Wednesday’s victory and he went 5-for-12 from past the arc on Sunday.
He missed his first 4 three-point photographs of the sport, however stored taking pictures and made 5 of his subsequent six photographs from distance.
The Hawks (24-11) have now received 9 of their previous 10 video games.
Cal rapidly expanded an eight-point halftime lead to 14 factors lower than two minutes into the second half.
Saint Joseph’s Dasear Haskins missed a breakaway dunk on the 17:08 mark, and 25 seconds later Dai Dai Ames made a three-pointer to give Cal a 15-point lead at 50-35. When Ames hit one other bucket with 16:01 left in the second half the Bears’ lead grew to 17 factors.
Cal elevated its lead to 19 with 15:24 to go earlier than Saint Josph’s launched its comeback bid.
The Hawks acquired the margin down 4 factors at 72-68 with 4:11 left, and Saint Joseph’s took a one-point lead when Derek Simpson made a three-point shot with 1:51 remaining.
Cal began the sport slowly, making solely one in all its first seven retailers, serving to Saint Joseph’s to an early 12-5 lead.
However, the Bears managed play for the remainder of the half, which ended with Cal holding a 41-33 lead.
A Dai Dai Ames 12-foot shot on the first-half buzzer gave Cal is largest lead of the primary half at eight factors.
Pippen was Cal’s high scorer in the primary half with simply seven factors, whereas Jaiden Glover-Toscano had 11 for the Hawks.
Cal had simply 4 turnovers in the primary 20 minutes.
NOTES
—Cal was a 5.5-point favourite in Sunday’s recreation, in accordance to FanDuel and DraftKings. ESPN Analytics gave Cal a 78.2 % probability of profitable the sport.
—Saint Joseph’s mascot Hawk was current at Sunday’s recreation, and he by no means stops flapping his wings all through the sport, even flapping throughout timeouts. This a long-standing custom of the Hawk.
