The California Golden Bears tipped off their preseason campaign with a convincing 89-71 victory over the Swedish club team Solna Vikings. Solna plays at the highest level of the Swedish division, so this is certainly one of the best challenges that Cal could get offered in the Scandinavian state. The Bears still handled them fairly well.
Allen Crabbe put up 25 points to lead the Bears in scoring, showing no ill-effects of the broken nose he suffered at the U19 Training Camp. Justin Cobbs started at shooting guard and added 12 points and six assists while Brandon Smith came off the bench to chip in with another six dimes to go along with eight points. Perhaps most surprising was the steady production of the bigs; walk-on Robert Thurman came in and put up 14 points and 8 rebounds, while true freshman David Kravish chipped in with six points and five boards. If Cal can get anything from these two bigs, it'll be a huge bonus to help out Harper Kamp and Richard Solomon (9 points, 4 rebounds).
Most of these numbers and information come courtesy of assistant coach John Montgomery's Twitter feed, who was liveblogging the game as it happened.
Cal's most prominent seniors saw limited action. Kamp played two rotations before sitting out the rest of the game, while Jorge Gutierrez didn't play at all because of a sprained ankle. Cal plays its next game tomorrow evening against Upsala, which is Monday morning on the West Coast.
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