Two teams headed in opposite directions take a break from conference play to meet up in Berkeley, Calif., when Northwestern State of Louisiana visits Cal on Saturday afternoon.

Northwestern State (4-5) put the lessons learned from a tough early nonconference schedule to good use when they opened Southland Conference play with narrow road wins over Incarnate Word and Houston Christian last week.

They’ll have two more tough out-of-conference road games, sandwiching a home matchup with Southern of New Orleans, before beginning their Southland home schedule against Nicholls State on Jan. 4.

The game represents a return to California for Northwestern State’s leading scorer, Jon Sanders II, who starred at East Los Angeles College before a one-year stopover at Coastal Carolina en route to his new Louisiana home.

Sanders, a nephew of Michigan Fab Fiver Jimmy King, totaled 29 points on 50-percent shooting (9 of 18) in last week’s wins.

“He might possibly see some old friends,” Demons coach Rick Cabrera said. “It’s nice (for his teammates) to see another part of the country, but it’s a business trip. So far we’ve played pretty well on the road. If the guys stay locked in, I think we’ll have a nice game.”

The schools will be meeting in men’s basketball for the first time. In fact, Northwestern State has never faced an Atlantic Coast Conference school in its history.

Cal (6-4) opened 6-1 before losing three straight, including its ACC debut at home last Saturday against Stanford. The Golden Bears followed that with an 88-80 home loss to Cornell.

Cal coach Mark Madsen made getting off to a fast start a priority against Cornell after the Golden Bears fell behind by 16 in the first half against Stanford. The urgency did not show as Cal trailed Cornell by 18 at halftime.

“Two games in a row,” Cal center Mady Sissoko said. “We’re not learning anything. This is unacceptable.”

The emphasis in practice this week has been taking care of the ball. Cal had its second-most turnovers of the season (17) against Cornell and has had at least as many miscues as its opponent in five straight games.

Northwestern State forced double-digit turnovers in each of its Southland wins. Addison Patterson, who began his college career at Oregon, has recorded two or more steals five times already this season and has had at least one steal in eight straight contests.

-Field Level Media