Cal’s 2025-26 season ended Sunday night when the Bears blew a 19-point, second-half lead and lost to Saint Joseph’s 76-75 in a second-round game of the National Invitation Tournament at Haas Pavilion.
This Bears (22-12) led 55-36 with 15:24 to go, but found a was to lose.
The Bears final opportunity came when Cal rebounded a Saint Joseph’s miss with seven seconds left, sending Dai Dai Ames on a fast-break opportunity. But his off-balance layup was blocked by Jaiden Glover-Toscano at the buzzer.
The Hawks will play an NIT quarterfinal game on Tuesday or Wednesday against New Mexico, which defeated George Washington 86-61 in the Lobos’ second-round game Sunday.
Cal played Sunday’s game without John Camden, who was sidelined with an injury. Nolan Dorsey took Camden’s place in the starting lineup.
Cal’s Chris Bell made up for Camden’s absence by scoring 23 points. He was 7-for-8 on three-pointers in Wednesday’s victory and he went 5-for-12 from beyond the arc on Sunday.
He missed his first four three-point shots of the game, but kept shooting and made five of his next six shots from distance.
The Hawks (24-11) have now won nine of their past 10 games.
Cal quickly expanded an eight-point halftime lead to 14 points less than two minutes into the second half.
Saint Joseph’s Dasear Haskins missed a breakaway dunk at the 17:08 mark, and 25 seconds later Dai Dai Ames made a three-pointer to give Cal a 15-point lead at 50-35. When Ames hit another bucket with 16:01 left in the second half the Bears’ lead grew to 17 points.
Cal increased its lead to 19 with 15:24 to go before Saint Josph’s launched its comeback bid.
The Hawks got the margin down four points at 72-68 with 4:11 left, and Saint Joseph’s took a one-point lead when Derek Simpson made a three-point shot with 1:51 remaining.
Cal started the game slowly, making only one of its first seven shops, helping Saint Joseph’s to an early 12-5 lead.
However, the Bears controlled play for the rest of the half, which ended with Cal holding a 41-33 lead.
A Dai Dai Ames 12-foot shot at the first-half buzzer gave Cal is largest lead of the first half at eight points.
Pippen was Cal’s top scorer in the first half with just seven points, while Jaiden Glover-Toscano had 11 for the Hawks.
Cal had just four turnovers in the first 20 minutes.
NOTES
—Cal was a 5.5-point favorite in Sunday’s game, according to FanDuel and DraftKings. ESPN Analytics gave Cal a 78.2 percent chance of winning the game.
—Saint Joseph’s mascot Hawk was present at Sunday’s game, and he never stops flapping his wings throughout the game, even flapping during timeouts. This a long-standing tradition of the Hawk.
