Jovan Blacksher Jr. scored 15 of his 18 points in the first half, Jeremiah Wilkinson added 14 points and Cal ended a two-game skid with a 74-62 victory over North Carolina State on Wednesday in Berkeley, Calif.
Joshua Ola-Joseph scored 13 points, and leading scorer Andrej Stojakovic was held to six after missing the previous four games with an illness and a hip injury. The Golden Bears (12-11, 5-7 ACC) won both games against the Wolfpack in their inaugural season in the conference.
Marcus Hill scored 20 points for NC State (9-13, 2-9), which lost its seventh consecutive game. The Wolfpack shot 38.7 percent from the floor and went 3 of 13 (23.1 percent) from 3-point range.
Dontrez Styles had 10 rebounds but was held to six points after he scored a combined 42 points over his previous two games. NC State fell to 0-8 in away and neutral-court games.
The Wolfpack led briefly in the second half, holding a 46-44 advantage with 13:42 remaining after a basket inside from Styles. It was their first lead since the opening seven minutes.
Following a Golden Bears timeout, consecutive 3-pointers from Rytis Petraitis and Ola-Joseph gave Cal the lead for good at 50-46 with 12:34 remaining.
Cal went up 67-57 with 2:57 remaining on a 3-pointer from Blacksher, then finished off a 14-3 run with two free throws from Wilkinson for a 72-57 advantage with 1:37 to play. NC State was 0 of 8 from the floor during Cal’s run.
Cal led for the majority of the opening 20 minutes and took a 34-30 lead into halftime after Blacksher made a 3-pointer at the buzzer. Blacksher shot 4 of 7 from the floor in the first half and 3 of 5 from 3-point range.
The Wolfpack played their second consecutive game without center Brandon Huntley-Hatfield because of an illness, and he already has been ruled out of Saturday’s game at Stanford.
–Field Level Media
