Gotta hand it to Mike Montgomery teams. They don't give up. They play strong defense and rebound actively. They generally keep the effort up from start to finish. And they somehow find a way to win.
And after a surprising beatdown of the New Mexico Lobos, his California Golden Bears started off the Old Spice Classic with a shocking upset of the Temple Owls. Temple looked off all night, shooting 20 of 60 from the field and 2 of 19 from the three point line. Harper Kamp (13 points, seven rebounds), Markhuri Sanders-Frison (eight points, nine boards), Jorge Gutierrez (10 points, three assists), Allen Crabbe (12 points, eight rebounds) and Gary Franklin (10 points) all had moderately efficient offensive nights, but it was their defense that shut down a talented Temple squad that's expected to compete for the Atlantic 10 crowd. Kamp and Sanders-Frison held down Lavoy Allen to 13 points on 12 shots, Gutierrez held his Latino-counterpart Juan Fernandez to 2 of 14 shooting and 0 of 7 from behind the arc, and the young freshmen Crabbe and Franklin shut down Ramone Moore and Scootie Randall (5 points on 2 of 15 shooting).
Cal will now play in the second round of the Old Spice Classic Friday at 2 PM PT/5 PM ET with a chance to advance to the finals. Their opponents will be the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who edged out the Georgia Bulldogs in double overtime in their first round matchup.
For more info on Cal's upset of Temple, check out the California Golden Blogs official recap of the game.