Dartmouth Comes Up Short in Defensive Battle at Cal, 61-55

Sunday, December 19

Berkeley, Calif. / Haas Pavilion

4:00 PM

Dartmouth College

3-7,0-0Ivy League

California

7-5,1-1Pac-12

Dartmouth

California

Junior Cam Krystkowiak had a career-high 20 points.

Photo by: Robert Edwards/KLC fotos

Dartmouth Comes Up Short in Defensive Battle at Cal, 61-55

12/19/2021 7:56:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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Cam Krystkowiak had a career-high 20 points for the Big Green

By: Rick Bender

BERKELEY, Calif. — Dartmouth battled with host California to the very end, but the Golden Bears' defense proved to be stout enough to thwart the upset bid by the Big Green in a 61-55 defeat on Sunday afternoon at Haas Pavilion. Junior Cam Krystkowiak produced a career-high 20 points for Dartmouth (3-7) off the bench, but Cal (7-5) got a double-double from forward Andre Kelly while holding the Green to a season-low 34.4 percent from the floor.

Krystkowiak hit 7-of-14 from the floor and 3-of-5 from the perimeter (he had one 3-pointer all season) while converting all three of his free throws to account for his 20 points on the day. But the Golden Bears hounded Dartmouth's three players averaging double figures on the season — Brendan Barry, Aaryn Rai and Taurus Samuels — who shot a combined 10-of-34 (.294) overall and 2-of-11 (.182) on long-distance attempts.

The Big Green did their fair share of work on the defensive end as well with Cal shooting 42.1 percent (24-of-57) from the floor and 5-of-19 (.263) from distance. Jordan Shepherd provided 18 points to lead the Bears, but on 6-of-17 shooting, while Kelly scored 14 on 6-of-11 field goals to go with his 10 rebounds. Grant Anticevich led all players with a career-high 15 boards as Cal owned a 45-33 advantage on the glass.

Krystkowiak, who had limited minutes in the previous two games, was pressed into service before two minutes had expired when starter Nate Ogbu picked up two quick fouls. The son of NBA veteran Larry Krystkowiak made the most of his opportunity, laying in an alley-oop pass before drilling a 3-pointer for a 7-2 Big Green lead out of the gate, causing Cal to call a timeout. A second triple from the 6-9 forward boosted the Dartmouth lead to eight at 14-6 as the Green showed no ill-effects from its overtime loss at Stanford on Thursday.

When the Bears scored the next seven points to make it a one-point game, Dartmouth managed to maintain the lead for most of the half. But Shepherd sank one of his two triples to give Cal the lead, 22-21, with 4:23 left in the half and it would never relinquish it. Though Dartmouth scored just two points in the final 6:13 of the stanza and shot 26.5 percent, it was only a four-point deficit, 27-23, at the intermission.

In the second half, Garrison Wade came out of the locker room looking to give the Green a lead, knocking down a trifecta on the first possession to close within one, then added a pull-up 16-footer to keep Dartmouth within three at 31-28.

After a pair of driving layups by Cal, Barry — fourth in the country in threes per game — rained down a long 3-pointer for what turned out to be his only one of the game. The Bears' bench had an answer as Jarred Hyder hit from behind the arc and Sam Ajaliki drove for a deuce to boost their lead to nine. When Shepherd cranked his other trey of the day with 10:30 to play, Cal enjoyed its largest lead at 48-36.

The difference was still in double digits with 3:49 to go when Dartmouth scored the next six points on layups from Barry, Rai and Krystkowiak, the last with 50.9 seconds left. But that was as close as the Big Green would come as Cal beat the press for a Kelly layup and Dartmouth misfired twice, making the last few seconds academic.

Dartmouth will look to snap its six-game skid when it wraps up its California tour at Cal State Bakersfield (4-4) at 2 p.m. (PST). The game will be streamed live on ESPN+.

Notes: Krystkowiak is the fourth Big Green player to score 20 or more points in a game this season, joining Barry, Rai and Samuels … Dartmouth turned the ball over a season-low five times … Barry has at least one 3-pointer in every game this season.