BERKLEY, Calif. – A second straight exhibition game against an NCAA Division I opponent brought a similar result against what projects to be a tougher opponent. After losing to the Big Sky Conference's Utah State University 98-54 thee days earlier, the University of Providence played a big five conference opponent for the first time in the program's modern era and lost 81-52.
 
The big difference in the two performances was a better defensive effort from UP. Against the USU Aggies, the Argos gave up a shooting percentage of 53 percent. In the first half against Cal, UP held the Bears to a percentage of 47 percent and 27 percent from three.
 
Both of those numbers got lower in a second half that UP only lost by 9 points. It would be easy to attribute the much closer second half to Cal emptying its bench but that was necessarily true.  Three of the Bear's five starters played at least 30 minutes in the 40-minute contest, including leading scorer Don Coleman.
 
UP also forced the Bears into 14 turnovers, all but 1 of which came from Cal's starting lineup.
 
Offensively, the three transfers that Head Coach Anthony Owens brought in over the offseason made the biggest impact. Senior guard DuShaun Rice, junior forward Deontae Woodbridge, and junior forward D'shea Williams combined to score 33 of the team's 52 points
 
Woodbridge not only scored, but he got on the glass too, pulling down his first double-double as an Argo with 13 points and 12 boards. At 4-12, the junior wasn't all that efficient from the floor but he did a good job of gathering his misses with 3 offensive rebounds and he also got to the free-throw line 8 times.
 
Only one other UP player managed to eclipse double-digits in any statistical category other than minutes, and that was Rice with 12 points. Most of those came off of his 3-7 shooting from 3-point range. Rice also picked the pocket of a Bear twice for 2 steals.
 
Williams only played 15 minutes but made good use of them. He was the only Argo to shoot over 50 percent from the field. He went 3-5 including 2-4 from three to finish with 8 points.
 
With two straight exhibition matches against top-level opponents behind them, the Argos will return to playing games that count for a while. The first of those games will be the team's second home contest of the season against SAGU American Indian College on November 10 at 3 p.m.