College basketball roundup: Cal, Stanford men come up short in Pac-12 openers

In Berkeley, Caleb Love scored 22 points, Motiejus Krivas had 18 and No. 4 Arizona beat Cal 100-81 on Friday night in the Pac-12 opener for both teams.

Oumar Ballo added 17 points and 11 rebounds for the Wildcats (10-2). Pelle Larsson had 12 points and seven assists.

It was the perfect bounce-back game for Arizona after taking a three-day break following a 96-95 loss in double-overtime to then-No. 14 Florida Atlantic last Saturday.

“We have high standards and our guys wanted to respond from our last game, and we want to establish a standard of how we play,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. “I thought we did that in the first half. I just think our guys came out and played with spirit and energy and kind of really took it to them right away.”

Love scored 20 or more points for the fifth time this season and the 31st time in his career. He shot 7 for 10 from the field.

Love also got a technical foul for taunting. He drew the call after making a powerful dunk over Gus Larson and glaring at the Cal player in the second half.

“If you make a highlight play and even look at the guy you had the highlight against, it’s like an automatic technical,” Lloyd said. “I don’t think he said anything. I think he maybe looked at the guy, showed him up, or something like that.”

Jaylon Tyson had 22 points and 10 rebounds and Jaylen Celestine added 14 points as the Bears (4-8) lost for the seventh time in nine games.

Cal fell behind early, made a little run in the second half, but couldn’t quite get it going.

Arizona never trailed and led by double digits over the final 34 minutes. The Wildcats have won 14 straight against Cal.

“We know Cal is a team, they always get up big in the first 4-10 minutes,” Ballo said. “We had to come out and try to outscore them and make some steps to make them uncomfortable.”

The Bears have shown dramatic improvement under first-year Cal coach Mark Madsen, but were no match against the Wildcats.

Arizona sped to an early lead and extended that advantage to 31 points.

“Our defense was not good enough,” Madsen said. “They made shots, they ran it down our throat and they established a dominant post presence inside.”

The Wildcats shot nearly 70% in the first half and were equally effective on the defense side while outhustling and outmuscling the Bears.

Arizona made 13 of its first 16 shots and got consecutive 3-pointers from Love during a 14-0 run.

Arizona State 76, Stanford 73

In Stanford, Kamari Lands and Adam Miller scored 13 points apiece and Alonzo Gaffney scored seven of his 12 points in the final five minutes to help Arizona State erase a double-digit deficit and beat Stanford on Friday night in the Pac-12 opener for both teams.

Frankie Collins also scored 12 points for Arizona State (7-5).

The Cardinal led by as many as 12 points and took a 69-59 lead when Jared Bynum made a layup with 5:04 to play. Miller answered with a jumper and, after Bynum missed the front end of a 1-and-1, Jose Perez made a layup to cut the deficit to six points about a minute later.

Andrej Stojakovic missed another front end, Miller hit a 3-pointer before Gaffney made a layup, hit a 3 and then threw down a dunk to cap a 14-4 run that made it 73-73 with 1:34 left.

Spencer Jones missed a layup attempt on the other end and Frankie Collins hit a contested step-back jumper with 31 seconds remaining, Jamiya Neal stole the ball from Jones and hit 1-of-2 free throws to cap the scoring with 18 second to go.

Perez had a steal and was fouled with eight seconds left and missed both free throws but Neal blocked a potential tying 3-pointer Michael Jones just before the buzzer.

Neal was just 3-of-11 shooting and made 1 of 8 from 3-point range to finish with nine points, six rebounds, a steal and a block.

Raynaud made 7 of 11 from the field and finished with 15 points and 15 rebounds for Stanford (5-6) and Angel also scored 15 points. Spencer Jones and Bynum added 12 points apiece.

Raynaud had six points — including a dunk to open the scoring — as Stanford jumped to an 8-2 lead. Collins hit a jumper to make it 22-all with seven minutes left in the first half, but Stojakovic answered with a 3-pointer eight seconds later and Bynum followed with a jumper in the lane before Angel hit a 3 and then threw down a dunk to cap a 10-0 run about three minutes later.

Another dunk by Angel gave Stanford a 37-28 halftime lead.

Arizona State hits the road to take on Cal on Sunday. Stanford plays host to No. 4 Arizona, which eliminated the Cardinal from the 2023 Pac-12 Tournament, on Sunday.

Saint Mary’s 66, Kent State 46

In Moraga, Luke Barrett's 19 points helped Saint Mary’s defeat Kent State 66-46 on Friday night.

Barrett had five rebounds for the Gaels (9-6). Mitchell Saxen scored 11 points and added six rebounds. Alex Ducas and Joshua Jefferson had 10 points apiece.

The Golden Flashes (7-5) were led by Chris Payton Jr., who posted 18 points and six rebounds. Giovanni Santiago added 10 points and four steals for Kent State. In addition, Tyem Freeman had five points and three steals.