Cal's Second-Half Rally Falls Short in Loss to Kansas State

Cal played its first road game of the season on Thursday, and though the Bears lost, they had to be pleased with their second-half performance.

Kansas State used a strong offensive performance, especially in the first half, to beat Cal 99-96 in Manhattan, Kansas. But for much of the game it seemed the final margin would be a lot greater.

Cal guard Dai Dai Ames scored 21 of his 25 points in the second half, helping the Bears make a late run, cutting a 25-point first-half deficit to six points with 36.8 seconds left in the game.

After Cal failed to reduce the margin further when it committed a turnover with 15 seconds left, one free throw by Kansas State made it a seven-point game. Cal freshman TT Carr scored with six seconds left to make it a five-point Kansas State lead, and after two missed foul shots by the Wildcats, Carr scored again with less than a second remaining to set the final score.

Ames was 5-for-6 from three-point range, with all six of his shots from long range coming in the second half. That helped Cal get back in the game.

Another good sign for Cal (3-1) was the performance of Chris Bell. He came to Cal from Syracuse with the reputation as an excellent outside shooter, but he was just 2-for-13 from three-point range over the first three games. On Thursday, Bell was 7-for-9 on three-pointers while scoring 27 points, with 18 points coming after halftime. He hit a couple of three-pointers in the closing minutes to aid the Bears' comeback effort.

None of that could overcome the fact that Cal could not slow Kansas State's offense in the first half., when Kansas State led by 25 points late in the first half and by 21 points at halftime.

"In the first half, every single one us got blitzed," Cal head coach Mark Madsen said. "Not good enough. It was unacceptable. We didn't have the energy. We weren't there on the coverages and it was an absolute beat-down.

"[But] I was proud of our guys. We won the second half almost by 20. But we can't have a bad start like that on the road against a top team. So we have film to study and we'll get better from this."

Kansas State (3-0) was picked to finish ninth in the 16-team Big 12 Conference in the preseason coaches poll, so this was a game Cal was hoping to steal on the road.

The Wildcats entered the game shooting 56% on three-point shots, which led the nation as of Thursday morning. And Kansas State made its first five three-point shots against Cal and went 9-for-18 from long range for the game.

Cal finished shooting 56.5% from the field, including 15-for-28 on three-pointers. Twelve of Cal's three-pointers came in the second half. Seldom does a team lose a game with those shooting percentages. But Kansas State shot 64.4% from the field for the game.

Kansas State seemed the have the victory in hand when it led by 21 points with 11 minutes left in the game. But Bell and Ames pulled the Bears back into contention, although you never got the sense that Cal would win the game.

Madsen attempted to explain the difference in Cal's play in the second half.

"It was a combination of, in the first half, they were turning us over and running it down our throat," he said. "We had much more concentration in the second half in terms of the game plan. I think initially we just lost our focus.

"Madsen attempted to explain the difference in Cals play in the second half."

California Golden Bears.

Kansas State led by as many as 25 points on several occasions late in the first half, as Call simply could not slow down the Wildcats’ offense.

Kansas State made its first five three-point shots of the game and hit 22 of its first 30 field-goal attempts overall (73.3%) to take command. K-State finished the half shooting 67.6% from the field, and the Wildcats were 6-of-8 from long range.

Cal shot 42.9% from the field in the first half, which isn’t bad, but it did not allow the Bears to keep pace with K-State. The Bears also committed 11 first-half turnovers, preventing Cal from making any headway.

The Bears led 9-5 before Kansas State hits consecutive three-pointers to initiate a 10-0 Kansas State run that turned into a 15-2 spurt that put Kansas State in control.

K-State did not even need offense from Haggerty, one of the top players in the country who had not scored a single point by the time Kansas State led by 17 points with eight minute remaining in the first half.

Haggerty finished with a team-high 23 points and was one of three Kansas State players who scored 20 points or more.

NOTES: Cal guard DeJuan “DJ” Campbell sat out his fourth straight game with a groin injury, and he is unlikely to play in the Bears’ next game. He started 16 games for Cal last season, when he averaged 7.8 points.

Kansas State came into Thursday’s game as a 6.5-point favorite over Cal.

Justin Wilcox doesnt want the Louisville win to be considered an upset.

Cal plays its next 11 games in the Bay Area. Ten of those games are in Berkeley and the other is a November 25 game against nationally ranked UCLA at The Chase Center in San Francisco.

Kansas State’s PJ Haggerty entered Thursday’s game averaging 25.0 points, which ranked 11th in the country. Kansas State is his fourth school in four years, and he previously played at TCU, Tulsa and Memphis.

Last month ESPN ranked Haggerty as the 11th-best player in college basketball for the 2025-26 season.

In K-State’s two previous game, the Wildcats defeated North Carolina-Greensboro 93-64 and beat Bellarmine 98-71.

Cal guard Dai Dai Ames played his freshman season at Kansas State.

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