Printable Version
Email This
Font
Cal had everything to play for and got nothing in return for its faulty effort Wednesday night in a continuing pattern of inconsistency as No. 23 UCLA scored an 86-66 victory at Haas Pavilion to remain in second place in the Pac-12 basketball standings.
It was Cal's worst loss of the season, home or away.
"We need to find consistency to help us ride out these (last) five games," said freshman Jordan Mathews, who led Cal with 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting. "These five games are critical."
With hopes of splitting its season series with UCLA, Cal instead came up well short to a better team and dropped to 17-9 overall and 8-5 in conference. The Bruins notched their 21st win against five defeats and are 10-3 in the Pac-12.
"They certainly were better than us tonight," Cal coach Mike Montgomery said. "They have some very good athletes. They played extremely well across the board. ... At this juncture, you'd have to be stupid to think they're not better than us. They beat us handily twice."
Cal could still finish in the top four in the conference and avoid playing on the first day of the Pac-12 tournament in March, but it would have to finish strong in its remaining five games, three of them at Haas Pavilion.
"We're trying to finish in the top four," Montgomery said. "We've just got to win as many games as we can and get in the top four and not spend a lot of time dwelling on this game."
Against an active UCLA defense playing zone and man-to-man, Justin Cobbs was held to seven points, Richard Solomon to six and Tyrone Wallace to five.
Speaking to the Bruins' defense on Solomon, Montgomery said, "We didn't pass the ball to him cleanly. Half the time we hit him in the ankles. They were loading up on him."
The Bears were done in by UCLA's interior defense and the 28 points poured in by 6-foot-5 guard Jordan Adams. He was supported by Kyle Anderson, who had 11 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.
At the start of the second half, the Bears played no better than they had in the first half. With 15:59 left in the game, they found themselves on the wrong end of a 55-41 score when UCLA's David Wear drained a three-point shot.
The Bruins' lead reached 61-44 with 13:18 remaining when Adams scored over Mathews, but the Bears responded with a Cobbs jumper and a Mathews three-point shot to trail 61-49 with 12:32 to go, giving the illusion they were still in this game.
Minutes later, though, UCLA had its biggest lead of the game, 79-52, after a layup by Adams with 7:01 left.
For as bad as Cal played for much of the first half, trailing by 12 less than 10 minutes in, it was remarkable the Bears trailed by only four points, 34-30, after a running jumper and subsequent free throw by Cobbs at 3:46.
But this is Cal and UCLA finished out the half outscoring the Bears 10-2 to take a 44-32 lead at intermission.
"I remember it being a close game and looking up and it was 12 points," Bird said.
From there, it only got worse for the Bears.
John Crumpacker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail:jcrumpacker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @crumpackeroncal
No comments:
Post a Comment