It took some time, but Cal finally has its first ACC win as a member of its new conference. The Bears came into Wednesday night’s matchup with three losses against league opponents, but a strong second-half showing allowed Mark Madsen’s team to secure a 75-61 victory over Virginia at Haas Pavilion.
So many times this season, the Bears have ended up in a difficult spot in the second halves of games and had to watch leads slip away.
Cal (8-7, 1-3 ACC) went into the locker room at halftime Wednesday night with some momentum following an 8-4 run to eventually take a 35-32 lead midway through the contest. That momentum continued to show itself in the second half as the Bears used an 8-0 run to take a 43-32 lead with 17:50 to play.
The Bears only allowed the Cavaliers (8-7, 1-3) to get as close as 8 points the rest of the night, and pushed the lead to as many as 17 with 9:53 to play, en route to their eighth victory of the season.
Leading scorer Andrej Stojakovic guided the second-half surge for the Bears as he followed up a 4-point showing in the first half with 19 points over the final 20 minutes to finish the night with 23 — his eighth game with at least 20 points this season.
He scored 5 points during the 8-0 run to open the second half and was efficient over the final stretch to finish the game 6 for 11 from the field. He hit 5-of-6 shots in the second half and his aggressiveness allowed him to get to the free-throw line for 13 attempts.
Stojakovic went 11 for 13 from the free-throw line in the game to go along with 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 block.
In all, Cal had four players score in double figures including 11 points for guard DJ Campbell who has now scored 11 in two of the last three games. Guard Jeremiah Wilkinson and forward Joshua Ola-Joseph contributed 20 of Cal’s 24 bench points as they finished the night with 10 points apiece.
Ola-Joseph had 7 rebounds to go with his 10 points.
The Bears won the rebounding battle, 40-33, and 11 of those rebounds belonged to center Mady Sissoko who had arguably his best all-around performance at Cal in the win over Virginia.
The Michigan State transfer contributed with 9 points, which included knocking down all five of his free-throw attempts, to go with 11 rebounds and a season-high 4 blocks. The 11 rebounds matches a season high for the 6-foot-9 senior.
Sissoko hit two of those free throws with 14:54 to play to help spark an 8-0 run for the Bears that pushed their lead up to 16 points with 12:52 left Wednesday night.
Cal, which has had some issues defensively through its slow start in ACC play, was able to contain Virginia and keep it under 35% shooting from the field. The Cavaliers knocked down 19 shots in the game and connected on just 33% of their attempts in the contest.
Andrew Rohde led a trio of double-digit scorers for UVA with 14 points in the game.
The Bears will close out their first full home stand of conference play Saturday against Virginia Tech. Tipoff for that matchup will take place at 3 p.m.
