Chris Bell scored 21 points and Justin Pippen added a career-high 16 as California cruised to a 91-67 win over Sacramento State on Friday in Berkeley, Calif.
Dai Dai Ames also scored 16 points for Cal (5-1), which led by as many as 34 points and never looked back after taking control midway through the first half. John Camden scored 14 points and Milos Ilic had a team-high nine rebounds.
The Bears improved to 4-0 all-time against Sacramento State (3-4), which was picked to finish seventh in the Big Sky preseason coaches’ poll.
Brandon Gardner led the Hornets with 19 points off the bench, including four 3-pointers. Freshman forward Mark Lavrenov scored 14 points in his first career start, and Prophet Johnson had 12 points and 11 rebounds.
The sharp-shooting Bears connected on 50.8% of their shots from the field and 39.5% (15 of 38) from 3-point range.
Sacramento State took an early 12-8 lead before Cal responded with a 17-0 run to move ahead 25-12 with 11:38 left in the first half.
Cal took a 41-20 lead on Bell’s trey with 5:43 remaining in the half, and the Bears held a 47-33 advantage at intermission.
Bell had 17 points in the half for the Bears, who shot 48.6% from the field and 9 of 24 (37.5%) from beyond the arc in the first 20 minutes.
The Bears’ 3-point barrage continued in the second half, and Camden’s trey extended the lead to 81-47 with 8:59 remaining.
Sacramento State played without senior forward Jeremiah Cherry, who ranks second on the team in points (15.5) and rebounds (8.2). Cherry suffered a leg injury in the first half of a 79-48 road loss to UCLA on Tuesday.
With Cherry sidelined, the Hornets struggled to keep pace with the Bears, who led 85-59 on Camden’s layup with 3:35 left.
Sacramento State shot 26.9% from the field and was held without a field goal in the final 4:40 of the contest.
