Chris Bell scores 31 points to help Bears advance to second round at home on Sunday
Cal prolonged its 2025-26 season by beating Illinois-Chicago 91-73 in a first-round National Invitation Tournament game Wednesday night at Cal’s Haas Pavilion. Cal’s Chris Bell scored 31 points on 10-for-12 shooting, including 7-for-8 on three-pointers in what would have been his final college game if the Bears had lost.
Justin Pippen scored 18 points with all 18 coming in the second half. The Bears 15 of 28 three-point shots, including 9-for-13 in the second half. This was Cal’s first national postseason tournament game since 2017 and the Bears first win in a postseason tournament since 2014 when Cal won two games in the NIT.The Bears improved their record to 22-11 and will host either Colorado State or Saint Joseph’s in the second round on Sunday at 6 p.m..Cal had a four-point lead at haltime and expanded the lead to 11 points with 11 minutes left. UIC made a few Both teams shots 50 percent from the field in the first half, which ended with Cal holding a 39-35 lead.Cal got back into contention and finally took the lead at 34-33 with 1:48 left in the half on an alley-oop dunk by Chris Bell on a pass from D.J. Cambell.A Cal turnover enabled UIC to score the final bucket of the half and trim the Cal lead to four. Bell led all scorers in the first half with 13 points on 5-for-6 shooting, including 2-for-3 on three-pointers. Cal shot just one free throw in the first half and made it, while the Flames attempted 10 free throws, making six of them. Justin Pippen did not score in the first half, and Dai Dai Ames had just four points before halftime and picked up his third personal foul late in the first half.---Cal was a 6.5-point favorite in Wednesday’s game according to FanDuel and a 5.5-point favorite according to DraftKings. ESPN Analytics gave Cal a 78.2 percent chance to beat UIC. ---UIC finished tied for third place in the Missouri Valley Conference with a 12-8 conference mark. The Flames reached the title game of the MVC tournament before losing to Northern Iowa in the finals. ---Cal was the first team from a Power Five basketball conference that UIC faced this season. Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.
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