CALIFORNIA (March 16) – The second-seeded California (PA) men's basketball team led by double-digits midway through the second half before suffering a 68-67 loss in the final seconds to third-seeded Charleston (W.Va.) at the Convocation Center on Saturday night in the second round of NCAA Tournament.
With the loss, the No. 8 Vulcans finish with a 28-5 record this season while making their second appearance in the NCAA Tournament in the last three years. The 28 victories are tied for the second-most in school history. Meanwhile, the No. 7 Golden Eagles – the 2024 Mountain East Conference (MEC) Tournament Champions – improve to 29-4 overall and advance to face top-seeded and No. 3 Gannon in the Atlantic Regional Championship on Tuesday, March 19, in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Sophomore
KJ McClurg scored a team-high 22 points on 7-of-15 from the floor, including three-of-five from beyond the arc, and five-of-six from the free-throw line. He closes the year with 745 points, the third-highest total in single-season school history, behind a school-record 211 free-throws made. McClurg also converted 77 three-pointers as a sophomore, which are the second-most by a Cal player in the last two decades.
Redshirt sophomore
Bryson Lucas posted 17 points on seven-of-eight shooting and added four rebounds and three steals on Saturday. Senior
Jermaine Hall, Jr. finished with 13 points on 5-of-10 from the field and nine rebounds against the Golden Eagles. He closed his career ranked No. 14 in school history with 1,369 points and tied with Eric Watson (1995-99) for fifth place all-time with 751 rebounds.
Redshirt senior
Zyan Collins collected seven assists while playing all 40 minutes. He finished career with 1,743 points to rank fourth all-time in school history.
The Golden Eagles made four three-pointers over the opening four-plus minutes of the game to take a 12-6 lead. Cal countered by scoring eight of the next 10 points to take a 16-14 lead on a jumper by Collins at the 12:57-mark. Charleston then scored eight-unanswered points to claim a 22-16 lead with 10:46 left in the first half. Both teams were scoreless for over the two minutes before the Vulcans later scored nine-straight points take a 29-26 lead on a dunk by Lucas with 1:26 remaining before the break. Cal held a 31-26 halftime lead on Saturday after the teams combined for only one free-throw attempt.
Charleston scored the opening basket of the second half before Cal rallied off 11-consecutive points to take a 42-31 lead when McClurg converted a four-point play with 18:00 left to play. The Golden Eagles eventually cut the deficit to 50-45 at the 12:54-mark before the Vulcans extended the lead back to double-digits, 60-50, on a three-pointer by McClurg with 8:26 remaining. Charleston later was held scoreless for two minutes before mounting a 10-3 run to work the deficit to 65-63 with 1:30 left to play. Hall stretched the lead back to two possessions, 67-63, at the 1:12-mark before the Golden Eagles made a pair of free-throws 14 seconds later. Cal missed a jumper on the next possession with 32 seconds remaining before Charleston called a timeout. Junior Dwaine Jones, the MEC Tournament MVP, then drilled a contested, go-ahead three-pointer with 3.9 seconds left to play to give the Golden Eagles a 68-67 lead. The Vulcans were unable to attempt a shot on the final possession of the game.
The Vulcans finished the game shooting 47.2 percent (25-of-53) from the field and made 11-of-16 (68.8 percent) from the free-throw line. In comparison, Charleston, which leads NCAA Division II in field-goal percentage, shot at a .481 clip (25-of-52) from the floor behind 8-of-27 (29.6 percent) from three-point territory. The Golden Eagles held a 34-27 rebounding advantage, while the Vulcans scored 19 points off turnovers in the loss. Cal committed just nine turnovers in the contest.
Senior Eddie Colbert III – the 2024 MEC Player of the Year – scored a game-high 33 points on 12-of-16 shooting, including four-of-eight from long range, and added seven rebounds. Jones added 18 points on 7-of-16 from the floor, including three-of-eight from beyond the arc, and seven assists over 38 minutes.
Collins and Hall both started over 100 games with the Vulcans and helped the program become reestablished as a conference and regional contender. Cal posted a combined 94 victories during their time with the program.
