Cal Prepares for No. 10 Houston With a Win Without Mark Madsen

Cal played Wednesday’s game without head coach Mark Madsen, but the Bears survived without him largely because of the Bears’ three-point shooting.

Cal got ready for its first major test of the season by beating Radford 84-70 on Wednesday night at Haas Pavilion. The Bears struggled a bit more than expected as they held just a one-point lead with 12:37 remaining, but they pulled away down the stretch. The Bears ended up taking 11 more three-point shots than two-pointers.

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Madsen was absent because of a family emergency, and assistant coach Adam Mazarei handled the Bears’ head coaching duties in Madsen’s absence. Mazarei found out he would be in charge just a few hours before the game. He expects Madsen to be back for Sunday’s game against 10th-ranked Houston in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.

“Absolutely,” Mazarei said. “I expect him to be back tomorrow.”

Nojus Indrusaitis made six three-pointers while scoring a career-high 30 points to help the Bears improve to 2-0.

“My teammates were finding me and I was just getting them up,” Indrusaitis said. “I feel like that’s what I’ve been doing all fall and summer. So it felt good.”

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Indrusaitis said he scored 42 points as a high school sophomore, but never reached the 30-point mark in two previous college seasons — his freshman year at Iowa State in 2024-25 and last year at Pitt.

He was 6-for-10 from long range, but he was not the only Cal player hitting from deep. Cal attempted 35 three-point shot, making 17 (48.6%). The Bears attempted 24 two-point shots,making 12. The Bears hope they can continue their hot shooting on Sunday.

Cal faces No. 10 Houston on Sunday at the Tahoe Blue Event Center in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. The game will start at 5:30 p.m. Pacific time and will be televised on The CW network.

.”That’s one of the hardest-playing teams in the country,” said Indrusaitis. “Great coach [Kelvin Sampson]. Great system. So I’m super excited for the opportunity.”

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Publish date : 2026-11-05 04:01:00

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