KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Harper Kamp was perfect from the field and finished with 16 points, Jorge Gutierrez added 14 and No. 20 California cruised into the CBE Classic championship game with a 70-46 rout of overmatched Georgia on Monday night.
The Golden Bears (4-0), who have matched their best start under coach Mike Montgomery, will face No. 21 Missouri in a matchup of stellar backcourts in the title game Tuesday night.
Missouri beat Notre Dame 87-58 in the other semifinal.
Justin Cobbs added 10 points off the bench for California, which still hasn’t been tested this season. The Golden Bears led UC Irvine, George Washington and Austin Peay by at least 20 early on, and built their lead to that much against Georgia with 13:11 left in the second half.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 10 to lead the Bulldogs (3-1), but he shot just 4 of 13 from the field and the team wound up shooting 33 percent — including 4 of 19 from beyond the 3-point line.
Gerald Robinson and Nemanja Djurisic each added nine points for Georgia.
The Bulldogs actually led 25-22 with about 5 minutes left in the first half when Caldwell-Pope scored on a dunk in transition and Djurisic was credited with a basket after goaltending.
Brandon Smith’s only points of the first 20 minutes stopped the Bulldogs’ brief flurry and began California’s half-ending 14-0 run. Allen Crabbe hit a go-ahead 3-pointer, Kamp converted a three-point play and Gutierrez added another short basket.
By the time Cobbs scored just before the buzzer, California had extended its lead to 36-25.
Georgia was still within 39-29 with 17:53 left in the game after Donte Williams scored the second of his back-to-back baskets, but Kamp scored the next five points — three of them from the foul line — to start a run of 14 unanswered by the Golden Bears that put the game away.
Cobbs added a highlight-reel three-point play during the spurt, and Gutierrez’s basket with 11:16 left in the game gave California a 53-29 lead and forced Georgia coach Mark Fox to call timeout.
The Bulldogs, who hit just two of their first 13 shots in the second half, never threatened the rest of the way, starting off a tough seven-game stretch with a thud.
Georgia will face Notre Dame in the third-place game Tuesday night, and then travel to Xavier and Colorado before returning home for games against Cincinnati and Georgia Tech — all before Dec. 7.
It’s a schedule that should give Fox’s young team, which returns just three players who have started a game in college, a chance to grow up before the SEC schedule opens Jan. 7 against Alabama.
CALIFORNIA (4-0)
Solomon 1-6 3-4 5, Kamp 6-6 4-6 16, Gutierrez 5-10 4-5 14, Smith 3-4 0-0 7, Crabbe 3-9 0-0 9, Cobbs 3-6 3-3 10, Chalian 0-0 0-0 0, Bak 0-0 0-0 0, Powers 0-0 0-0 0, Murray 1-3 0-0 3, Thurman 0-0 0-0 0, Kravish 3-6 0-0 6. Totals 25-50 14-18 70.
GEORGIA (3-1)
Thornton 1-7 2-2 4, D. Williams 3-5 0-0 6, Caldwell-Pope 4-13 0-2 10, Ware 1-5 0-0 3, Robinson 4-8 1-1 9, Dixon 0-1 0-0 0, V. Williams 0-2 0-0 0, Bucklin 0-0 0-0 0, Nolte 0-0 0-0 0, Brantley 0-3 0-0 0, Florveus 0-2 1-2 1, Cannon 2-2 0-0 4, Djurisic 4-10 0-0 9. Totals 19-58 4-7 46.
Halftime—California 36-25. 3-Point Goals—California 6-11 (Crabbe 3-6, Cobbs 1-1, Smith 1-1, Murray 1-2, Solomon 0-1), Georgia 4-19 (Caldwell-Pope 2-6, Djurisic 1-3, Ware 1-4, Thornton 0-1, V. Williams 0-2, Brantley 0-3). Fouled Out—None. Rebounds—California 36 (Kravish 8), Georgia 31 (Thornton 8). Assists—California 14 (Cobbs 5), Georgia 8 (Robinson, V. Williams 3). Total Fouls—California 13, Georgia 16. A—11,436.