Bears Battle Back, Fall Short To K-State

BERKELEY (AP) – California whittled away at a 15-point halftime deficit before ultimately falling to Kansas State 63-54 in a men’s basketball nonconference clash on Friday night in Haas Pavilion.

 

Kansas State’s (2-0) Keyontae Johnson scored nine of his team-leading 16 points in the first half to help the visiting Wildcats take a commanding 36-21 lead into the intermission. The Golden Bears (0-2) climbed back with a 13-point run – fueled by 3-pointers from Devin Askew and Kuany Kuany, who led Cal with 17 and 13 points, respectively – and eventually worked it to a one-point contest, 47-46, on a layup by Sam Alajiki with 5:37 remaining in the game.

 

Marquis Nowell answered Alajiki’s bucket with a pivotal four-point play and a layup in a 6-0 run to put the Wildcats in front from there.

 

“We dug too big of a hole in the first half,” Cal head coach Mark Fox said. “We’re playing a lot of young guys and they made some errors – and they’re going to make some errors – but I was proud of how we competed. I’m disappointed that we didn’t find that competitive nature earlier. We lost to a good team out of the Big 12 and we have a lot of respect for their program.”

 

Cal led 12-11 early on Askew’s basket-and-one with 13:12 left in the first half, but the Bears went more than 10 minutes without a field goal from that point before ND Okafor’s layup at the 2:45-mark made…