Cal thunders past Oregon

Patrick Christopher scored all 21 of his points in the first half as California quickly took a commanding lead, and the Golden Bears beat Oregon for the third straight time with an 89-57 basketball victory Thursday night at Berkeley, Calif.

Christopher scored 14 straight points for his team late in the first half, knocking down both of his 3-point tries, and his big night helped Cal (12-6, 4-2) stay in first place in the conference along with idle Arizona State. Mike Montgomery got to rest his regulars for much of the second half.

Theo Robertson added 18 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals for Cal, which bounced back from an embarrassing 15-point loss at Washington last Saturday.

Jeremy Jacob scored 13 points and Michael Dunigan added nine points and 10 rebounds for the cold-shooting Ducks (10-8, 2-4), who went 1 for 18 from 3-point range in their fourth straight loss.

This matched Cal’s largest margin of victory in the series along with a 78-46 win on Dec. 29, 1962, in Portland.

Christopher played only 29 minutes and none of the starters went more than that.

Oregon managed six blocks against the Bears, but was outrebounded 42-36 and couldn’t overcome its 38 percent shooting. Leading scorer Tajuan Porter, who came in averaging 12.8 points per game, was held to six points and went 3 of 9 from the floor. He missed all five of his 3-point tries.

The Bears were picked to win the conference after placing third last season – five spots higher than they were picked to finish – and getting 22 victories in Montgomery’s first year in Berkeley.

Stanford 59, Oregon State 35: Landry Fields had 17 points and nine rebounds as the Cardinal beat the Beavers at Stanford, Calif.

Jeremy Green added 13 points for the Cardinal (9-9, 3-3), who won for the seventh time in their last eight home games.

Seth Tarver scored 10 points to lead the Beavers (8-10, 2-4), who were held to their lowest scoring output of the season and have now lost five of their last seven games.