Cal’s Randle too much for Huskies

Jerome Randle scored 21 of his 33 points in the first half, Jamal Boykin added 20 points and 11 rebounds and first-place California kept hold of its top spot in the Pac-10 basketball race with a commanding 93-81 victory over Washington on Thursday night in Berkeley, Calif.

Isaiah Thomas scored 25 points to lead the Huskies (16-8, 6-6 Pac-10), who fell to 0-7 on the road and greatly hurt their NCAA tournament hopes. They will likely need to win the Pac-10 tournament to earn an NCAA berth.

Randle shot 12 for 19 and helped the Golden Bears (16-8, 8-4) avenge an embarrassing 84-69 defeat at the hands of the Huskies on Jan. 16 in Seattle, which ended Cal’s three-game winning streak in the rivalry.

Randle was off that game, going scoreless in the first half and finishing 2 for 9 from the field and 1 of 6 from 3-point range for a season-low five points and a season-worst eight turnovers.

On Thursday, he made a strong case for Pac-10 Player of the Year honors – thoroughly outplaying Washington star Quincy Pondexter, who wound up with 17 points but was slow to find his rhythm. His jumper with 4:32 to play got Washington within 10 but that was the closest the Huskies got the rest of the way. Venoy Overton added 15 points for Washington.

The Bears, picked to win the Pac-10 after a third-place finish last year, bounced back from consecutive losses at Arizona and Southern California to beat UCLA last Saturday. Cal is trying to capture its first conference title since 1960.

ASU 56, Oregon State 46: At Tempe, Ariz., Derek Glasser scored 16 points and Jerren Shipp had 11 as the Sun Devils defeated the Beavers to keep pace in the tightly contested Pac-10 race.

Ty Abbott had nine points and nine rebounds for the Sun Devils (17-8, 7-5 Pac-10), who rebounded from a 23-point loss at Washington last weekend. ASU entered in a five-way tie for second place, one game behind California.

Arizona 70, Oregon 57: At Tucson, Ariz., Derrick Williams scored 11 of his 20 points in the first 31/2 minutes of the second half.

The 6-foot-8, 225-pound freshman made eight of his 10 shots, including an array of wide-open dunks as the Wildcats (13-11, 7-5) moved into a tie with Arizona State for second in the scrambled Pac-10, a game behind first-place California.

Jeremy Jacob and Teondre Williams scored 10 apiece for the Ducks (12-11, 4-7).