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Cal Men Break 100, Set First-Half Scoring Record in Basketball Opener
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- Cal Men Break 100, Set First-Half Scoring Record in Basketball Opener
Cal coach Mark Madsen | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Cal set a school record for most points in a first half with 66 on its way to a 115-86 victory over Division II-level Adams State at Haas Pavilion in the Bears' season opener on Monday night.
Cal called it a regular-season game, while Adams State identified it as an exhibition game.
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In any case it was little more than an offensive exhibition for the Cal men, whose 66 points in the first half topped the Bears' previous first-half record of 63 set in 1990 against U.S. International.
The Bears fell short of the Cal record for points in a game, which stands at 127 points. Cal defeated Oklahoma City 127-67 in 1972, and Cal scored 76 points in the second half of that game. Cal's 115 points on Monday were still the most by a Bears team since November of 2007, when Cal scored 117 against Jackson State.
Cal played Monday's game without center Lee Dort, the only returning starter from last season's Cal squad. He was sidelined with an ankle injury.
It didn't matter on Monday as Cal made their first six three-point shots and shot out to quick 41-23 lead. The rest of the game was a matter of getting playing time for nearly everyone of the Bears bench.
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Cal's top scorers were Sammie Yeanay with 21 points, Nojus Indrusaitis with 20 points and Michael Cooper with a team-high 24 points. Yeanay added few windmill dunks along the way.
Cooper said afterward that the team has focused on playing at a faster pace than it did in its exhibition games, but head coach Mark Madsen said his team needs to be prepared to play any style.
."We need to be able to win both types ofways," Madsen said. "We need to win the games that are slug-it-out, 10-yards-in-a-cloud-of-dust. We have to be able to win those games with execution, with precise sets, which we have. We also have to be able to play fast. We have to be able to play against shifting defenses. We have to play if a team tries to speed us up. It has been an emphasis point for us to be able to play fast, and I think we saw glimpses of that tonight, and that was gratifying to see because of how much we've worked on it."
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Cal shot 60.6% from the field for he game and made 11-of-23 three-pointers. Cal committed just eight turnovers.
The Bears hit the 100-point mark with 6:17 remaining when they took a 101-66 lead as they continued to pour it on.
The Bears' starting lineup consisted of Yeanay, Indrusaitis, Jake Wilkins, Jordan Ross and Mantas Kocanas.
Cal made 11 of its first 14 shots from the floor, helping the Bears to an early 31-14 lead. Yeanay scored eight points in the five minutes of the game to push the Bear into the lead.
By the time Cal had built a 39-23 advantage with 9:15 left in the first half, Cal was 6-for-6 on three-point shots.
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Cal led 66-37 at halftime by shooting 62.9% from the field and 7-for-11 on three-pointer. The Bears committed just three first-half turnovers while limiting Adams State to 36.1% shooting in the first 20 minutes
Notes
---Adams State is located in Alamosa, Colorado, and was picked to finish ninth in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference in the preseason poll, with Black Hills State the overwhelming pick to win it.
---Cal, which went 22-12 last season, plays its second game of the season on Wednesday night at Haas Pavilion against Radford, which was picked to finish sixth in the nine-team Big South in its preseason poll.
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The Highlanders, who went 16-16 last season, opened their 2026-27 season with a game against San Francisco on Monday.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/cal as Cal Men Break 100, Set First-Half Scoring Record in Basketball Opener .
