California @ Santa Clara preview

Last Meeting ( Nov 26, 2018 ) Santa Clara 66, California 78

Two teams eager to bounce back from a pair of ugly road losses meet Saturday when Santa Clara hosts California, which has stumbled since opening with four straight wins. The Bears are facing their second consecutive West Coast Conference foe after falling 76-64 at San Francisco on Wednesday, while Santa Clara saw its five-game winning streak come to an end with Wednesday’s 98-67 loss to Nevada.

Guard Matt Bradley averages a team-high 17.4 points for Cal, which turned in an uneven performance against San Francisco and lost for the third time in its last four games. Bradley was held out of the starting lineup for disciplinary reasons and finished with 11 points against the Dons, who outscored the Bears by 10 in the second half while shooting 48 percent from the field. “We finished the first half with about 10 minutes of good defense and that was about all that we played,” Cal coach Mark Fox told reporters. “Because in the second half our defense was nowhere near to the level it needs to be to beat a good basketball team.” Picked to finish last in the Pac-12 preseason media poll, the Bears have five games remaining before opening conference play at Stanford on Jan. 2.

TV: 5 p.m. ET, No TV

ABOUT CAL (5-3): Kareem South, a graduate transfer from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, scored 20 points against San Francisco and ranks second on the team in scoring at 11.1 points per game while shooting 44 percent from the field. Fox is looking for more consistency from his frontcourt, where Grant Anticevich and Lars Thiemann have started all eight games but allowed San Francisco 7-footer Jimbo Lull to score 20 points on 7-for-10 shooting. Juhwan Harris-Dyson started in place of Bradley on Wednesday but was held to two points in 12 minutes and has scored a total of 23 points this season.

ABOUT SANTA CLARA (8-2): Four players are averaging at least nine points for coach Herb Sendek’s squad, including guard Trey Wertz (11.1), forwards Guglielmo Caruso (10.8) and DJ Mitchell (10.4) and guard Tahj Eaddy (10.0). Williams and Mitchell scored eight points apiece in the loss to Nevada on Wednesday, when the Broncos were outrebounded 52-37 and made just four of their 28 3-point attempts. Forward Josip Vrankic averages 5.3 rebounds to lead the Broncos, who have won eight of their first 10 games for just the second time in the last 22 years.

TIP-INS

1. Cal has won six of the last seven meetings against Santa Clara.

2. Santa Clara has won its last 10 home games, dating back to last season.

3. Cal is 5-0 at home this season but winless in three games away from Haas Pavilion.

PREDICTION: Santa Clara 68, Cal 65