California and Oregon State will look to halt skids at the other’s expense on Sunday afternoon when the Pac-12 rivals meet in Berkeley, Calif.
A losing streak is nothing new for the Golden Bears (3-16, 2-6), who began the season with 12 straight setbacks. Now, they find themselves mired in a three-game slide following an 87-58 loss to Oregon on Wednesday.
“This was as bad a game as we’ve had all season,” said forward Lars Thiemann, who boasts team-best averages in points (11.0) and rebounds (6.2) for California.
“We didn’t find a rhythm on offense. We couldn’t really be effective against the press.”
It’s a familiar refrain for California, which has been held under 60 points on 10 occasions.
Freshman ND Okafor scored a team-high 10 points on 5-of-5 shooting from the floor on Wednesday.
California played its fifth consecutive game without Devin Askew, who has been sidelined with a foot/ankle injury.
The Golden Bears, however, can hang their hat on a few positives heading into Sunday’s showdown. They have recorded all three of their wins at home in 2022-23 and have won 10 of the last 11 games when Oregon State pays a visit to Berkeley.
Speaking of road issues, the Beavers (7-12, 1-7) have lost 25 in a row away from home. Overall, they have dropped six straight games to plummet toward the bottom of the conference.
Glenn Taylor Jr. scored 11 points in Oregon State’s 67-46 setback to Stanford on Thursday.
The Beavers did themselves no favors by committing 17 turnovers, shooting 34.1 percent from the floor and enduring a near-12-minute stretch of failing to score a basket during the second half.
“They out-toughed us. Now we’re going to play a team that might be more physical than Stanford on Sunday,” Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle said, per the Corvallis Gazette-Times. “Really, it’s going to be what’s inside your chest cavity, and we’ll be very brutally honest when we watch the film and we’ll challenge the guys to be better.”
–Field Level Media
