Bears freshmen impressive in Australia

One thing became obvious from the Cal basketball team’s trip to Australia, which concluded last week: Both highly touted freshmen will help considerably, and one of them may be an immediate star.

The Bears won three of their four games on the trip, losing only the last one 110-99 to the Illawarra Hawks, a game in which foul trouble virtually doomed the Bears.

But the Bears showed why their 2015 recruiting class is ranked No. 3 in the nation by Scout.com, No. 5 by ESPN.com and No. 7 by Rivals.com

Ivan Rabb, a 6-10 big man from Oakland’s Bishop O’Dowd High School, is ranked the No. 5 recruit in the class by Scout, and he proved his value on offense and on the boards in Australia, averaging 12.8…