Nov. 19, 2007

Final Stats

BERKELEY, CA - After the Golden Bears started both halves on runs, Nicholls never gave up and cut into the lead on multiple occasions, but Cal's athleticism won out as they defeated the Colonels 74-62 on Monday night in the Haas Pavilion.

"I was very proud of the way that they competed and never gave up," said head coach J.P. Piper. "Cal has some very talented players, and for us to be within striking distance all game with them, I thought that was an accomplishment for us."

Nicholls out scored the Golden Bears bench 30-to-4 in the loss in part due to the strong play of true freshman Anatoly Bose, who had 13 points, and sophomore Mitch Boyce, who had 10. Bose had six rebounds and two steals to go along with his point total, while Boyce finished 3-of-4 from three-point range.

Leading the way for the Colonels in scoring was junior Ryan Bathie with 17 points in the loss. Bathie's 17 came with three rebounds, two steals and an assist.

Cal was lead by Ryan Anderson and Patrick Christopher as the duo combined for 51 points with Anderson scoring 27 and Christopher adding 24. Each of them finished with eight rebounds while senior DeVon Hardin, who is a potential first round 2008 NBA Draft selection, had a game high 14 rebounds.

The Colonels (1-3) fell behind in the first half after Cal (2-0) opened the game with a 12-0 run that encompassed the first five minutes of the contest, but Nicholls steadily fought back to get the game to a three point contest, 20-17, at the 10:05 mark. For the first part of the half, Hardin dominated the glass with seven rebounds, but sophomore Chris Paige came off the bench for the Colonels to slow him down. In fact, Nicholls went into the locker room at half leading in points in the paint 10-to-8.

When halftime came, Nicholls trailed 34-25, and did so on the likes 30 percent (9-of-30) shooting from the floor and only 18.8 percent (3-of-16) from three point range. However the Colonels did benefit from 14 Golden Bears turnovers for 11 points, while the Colonels only had nine miscues that led to six points for Cal.

The second half started just like the first with Cal going on an early 10-2 run, but Nicholls, like the first half, remained resilient and fought their way back to within nine points twice; once at the 8:39 mark with the score being 57-46 and the other at the 6:17 mark, 60-51. It wasn't until the 3:15 mark that the Golden Bears started to pull away, increasing their lead to 14 points (67-53) to go on to get the victory.

For the game, Nicholls shot 39.3 percent (22-of-56) from field goal range and finished with a 29.4 percent (10-of-34) mark from behind the arc. However, the Colonels did shot 50.0 percent (13-of-26) in the second half, and 38.9 percent (7-of-18) from three point territory.

Cal shot 49.0 percent (25-of-51) from the floor, which included a 42.1 percent (8-of-19) showing behind the arc for the game.

The Colonels will be back in action on Wednesday at UC Davis, when the two teams tip-off at 9 p.m. CST. Pre-game can be heard starting at 9:15 on 105.9 FM KBZE and on 640 AM KTIB with Brennan Matherne giving all the play-by-play action. The game can also be heard on the internet at www.kbze.com.

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