Dec 13, 2023 3 min read

By Bill Hughes

For the Observer-Reporter

newsroom@observer-reporter.com

CALIFORNIA – Entering its thrilling 94-90 come-from-behind victory over Wheeling Wednesday night, undefeated California had the second-ranked defense in all of Division II men’s basketball.

With the way the game started, that fact would have been hard to guess, and Vulcans head coach Danny Sancomb said as much.

“We are the No. 2 defensive field-goal percentage team in the country and if you watched us for the first time today, you wouldn’t have thought that,” he said. “We just kept fighting, and pride has to come in.

“It wasn’t a good game for us, and we have to get back to the drawing board.”

The Cardinals came out blistering from the field and made 13 of their first 17 shots, and they made nine of their first 10 three-point tries.

“I take my hat off to Wheeling for how they played,” Sancomb said. “In the first half, they shot exceptionally well.”

Wheeling (4-6) led by as many as 23 points in the first half, 54-31, with 3:47 to go before the break, but Cal (8-0) was about to cut its deficit to 57-42 at the half.

“I thought we had a chance at that point in time,” Sancomb said. “(Then) the first eight, nine minutes, we were just as bad offensively to start the second half as we were to start the first half.”

Down 19 with 8:37 to go in the game, Sancomb decided to turn up the pressure and the Vulcans, down 77-58 at that point, outscored Wheeling 36-13 the rest of the way.

During the run, Wheeling had 11 turnovers, and that could be attributed to Cal’s press.

“We started to press a little late in the game, but we have three potential starters out right now,” Sancomb said. “I would have liked to try it a little earlier, but I thought we wouldn’t be able to make it to the end.”

KJ McClurg, who scored a career-high 35 points, gave Cal its first lead at 87-85 with 2:35 to go.

When asked about his career night, the sophomore only wanted to talk about the team’s win.

“I told the team, it was just win every four minutes and we would chip away,” he said. “We made the right plays at the end.

“At one point, I thought I had around 23 but looked up and saw I had 30. But at the end of the day, all I cared about was getting to 8-0. The personal accolades will come, but the win was more important.”

McClurg finished 12 of 17 from the field and only missed one of his 11 two-point attempts while Zyan Collins finished with 25 points on 10 of 14 shooting and had four steals.

Jermaine Hall (14) and Antoine Arnett (11) also hit double figures for the Vulcans, while Sean Ealy (30), Marcus Johnson (28), and Caleb Murray (14) hit double figures for Wheeling.

Cal shot 57.8 percent (37 of 64) from the field for the game while Wheeling shot 50 percent (30 of 60).

Wheeling shot 57.7 percent from beyond the arc (15 of 26) while Cal was held to 21.7 percent (5 of 23).

The Vulcans are off until Monday and Tuesday when they will host Shippensburg and Lock Haven in a pair of PSAC games.