Saturday, December 14
Berkeley, CA
7:30 PM
Saint Mary's College of California
at
California
Photo by: Saint Mary's Athletics / Tod Fierner
MBB | Gaels Square Off with Cal in Caldecott Classic on Saturday
12/12/2019 2:09:00 PM | Men's Basketball
MORAGA, Calif. — For the third year in a row, Saint Mary's (9-2) will take on their East Bay rival Cal in the Caldecott Classic on Saturday. The Gaels will head through the tunnel to play the Golden Bears in Haas Pavilion in Berkeley with a scheduled 7:30 p.m. tip-off time.
GAME INFORMATION
Game No. 11 vs. California (6-4)
Date/Time: Saturday, Dec. 14 at 7:30 p.m. PT
Location: Haas Pavilion (Berkeley, Calif.)
TV: Pac-12 Network
Radio: Tune In (Alex Jensen)
WATCH | LISTEN | LIVE STATS
Gaels' all-time head to head record: 19-65 (Last meeting: 12/1/18, H, SMC 84 — CAL 71)
ABOUT CALIFORNIA
The Bears are 6-4 this season and beat Fresno State last night in Berkeley by six. Saint Mary's will be the fourth West Coast Conference team Cal will play this season as they defeated Pepperdine in their season opener before falling on the road to San Francisco and Santa Clara earlier this month.
Matt Bradley leads his team in scoring with 17.9 points while shooting 43 percent from beyond the arc. The sophomore guard is particularly effective at getting to the free throw line with 52 attempts thus far and is shooting 90 percent at the stripe. Fellow guard Kareem South is also averaging double figures this year at 12.0 points
As a team, Cal is averaging 66.9 points per contest and shooting 40 percent from 3-point land. The team averages only 9.8 assists against 13.0 turnovers.
The series history between the Gaels and Bears strongly favors Cal although the majority of their matchups came in the early to mid-20th century. In recent years, Saint Mary's has won four of the previous five meetings dating back to 1997, including each of the last two.
Last year in Moraga, SMC snapped a four-game losing streak as they rolled to an 84-71 win over Cal behind Malik Fitts' 19 points, Jordan Ford's 16 points and seven assists, and 16 points from Dan Fotu off the bench.
LAST TIME OUT
Saint Mary's pulled together an impressive rally in the second half versus No. 19 Dayton but couldn't overcome a big first half hole as the Flyers came out on top at the Jerry Colangelo Classic in Talking Stick Resort Arena.
Malik Fitts led the charge on offense with 21 points while also grabbing a team-high eight rebounds before fouling out late in the game. Kristers Zoriks had a career-high 14 points while Jordan Ford added 11.
The Gaels were the better team in the second half of play, outscoring the Flyers 43-32 while knocking down their 56 percent of their field goals. Unfortunately, it was too little too late for SMC as Dayton's scalding offense provided enough separation early to secure the win.
LOOK OUT FOR KRISTERS
Kristers Zoriks has seen a significant uptick in his minutes of late, averaging 27 minutes per game over the Gaels' last three contests and is scoring nearly 13 points per contest in that span.
After sitting out his first two seasons in Moraga due to injury, Zoriks finally began his collegiate career in this year's season opener versus Wisconsin and made his first career start against Sonoma State. The Latvian guard is shooting an impressive 59 percent from the field so far and has cashed in on 11 of his 17 3-point attempts, good for 65 percent.
SHOOTERS SHOOT
Saint Mary's leads the nation in 3-point shooting percentage this season at 44.4 percent. The Gaels have multiple players above 50 percent with almost all of their attempts coming from players shooting 39 or better.
SMC's standouts include Kristers Zoriks (65 percent), Alex Ducas (55), Tanner Krebs (54), Tommy Kuhse (50), Jordan Ford (41), Malik Fitts (40), and Elijah Thomas (39).
GAME INFORMATION
Game No. 11 vs. California (6-4)
Date/Time: Saturday, Dec. 14 at 7:30 p.m. PT
Location: Haas Pavilion (Berkeley, Calif.)
TV: Pac-12 Network
Radio: Tune In (Alex Jensen)
WATCH | LISTEN | LIVE STATS
Gaels' all-time head to head record: 19-65 (Last meeting: 12/1/18, H, SMC 84 — CAL 71)
ABOUT CALIFORNIA
The Bears are 6-4 this season and beat Fresno State last night in Berkeley by six. Saint Mary's will be the fourth West Coast Conference team Cal will play this season as they defeated Pepperdine in their season opener before falling on the road to San Francisco and Santa Clara earlier this month.
Matt Bradley leads his team in scoring with 17.9 points while shooting 43 percent from beyond the arc. The sophomore guard is particularly effective at getting to the free throw line with 52 attempts thus far and is shooting 90 percent at the stripe. Fellow guard Kareem South is also averaging double figures this year at 12.0 points
As a team, Cal is averaging 66.9 points per contest and shooting 40 percent from 3-point land. The team averages only 9.8 assists against 13.0 turnovers.
The series history between the Gaels and Bears strongly favors Cal although the majority of their matchups came in the early to mid-20th century. In recent years, Saint Mary's has won four of the previous five meetings dating back to 1997, including each of the last two.
Last year in Moraga, SMC snapped a four-game losing streak as they rolled to an 84-71 win over Cal behind Malik Fitts' 19 points, Jordan Ford's 16 points and seven assists, and 16 points from Dan Fotu off the bench.
LAST TIME OUT
Saint Mary's pulled together an impressive rally in the second half versus No. 19 Dayton but couldn't overcome a big first half hole as the Flyers came out on top at the Jerry Colangelo Classic in Talking Stick Resort Arena.
Malik Fitts led the charge on offense with 21 points while also grabbing a team-high eight rebounds before fouling out late in the game. Kristers Zoriks had a career-high 14 points while Jordan Ford added 11.
The Gaels were the better team in the second half of play, outscoring the Flyers 43-32 while knocking down their 56 percent of their field goals. Unfortunately, it was too little too late for SMC as Dayton's scalding offense provided enough separation early to secure the win.
LOOK OUT FOR KRISTERS
Kristers Zoriks has seen a significant uptick in his minutes of late, averaging 27 minutes per game over the Gaels' last three contests and is scoring nearly 13 points per contest in that span.
After sitting out his first two seasons in Moraga due to injury, Zoriks finally began his collegiate career in this year's season opener versus Wisconsin and made his first career start against Sonoma State. The Latvian guard is shooting an impressive 59 percent from the field so far and has cashed in on 11 of his 17 3-point attempts, good for 65 percent.
SHOOTERS SHOOT
Saint Mary's leads the nation in 3-point shooting percentage this season at 44.4 percent. The Gaels have multiple players above 50 percent with almost all of their attempts coming from players shooting 39 or better.
SMC's standouts include Kristers Zoriks (65 percent), Alex Ducas (55), Tanner Krebs (54), Tommy Kuhse (50), Jordan Ford (41), Malik Fitts (40), and Elijah Thomas (39).
Players Mentioned
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