Cal cows Bruins
LOS ANGELES – Fans wearing nine different colors simultaneously began cheering while the ones wearing powder blue started filing out of the Staples Center.
And just like that, California blew a scoreboard-sized hole into this Pacific-10 men’s basketball tournament.
The eighth-seeded Golden Bears, having defeated Oregon State the night before, shocked Pac-10 regular-season champion UCLA 76-69 in overtime, possibly costing the Bruins a top seed in the NCAA tournament and sending every other team still alive in the tournament into a dreamland where beating UCLA was no longer a requirement.
Even a section full of Stanford fans, just feet away from the Cal bench, cheered wildly and showed their appreciation as the clock wound down.
“They’re going to go at you until the game’s end,” said Cal senior Ayinde Ubaka, who dominated Thursday’s game by scoring 29 points including a series of clutch buckets late in the second half and in overtime. The Bears (16-16) will play Oregon for a spot in the tournament finals. “This is great, but we have another game (today). Oregon certainly doesn’t care if we won.”
That statement may have been Ubaka’s lone error on the day, because Oregon and the rest of the league surely does care very much about this bracket without its big dog. The UCLA loss meant that Washington State was the highest seed left in the tournament before it even took the floor.
And it will have the Bruins (26-5) in self-evaluation mode heading into the tournament. A lock for a No. 1 seed and a favorite for the top seed overall in the NCAA tournament just a week ago, consecutive losses have the Bruins on their heels.
“I don’t even care (about the top seed),” UCLA coach Ben Howland said. “If we don’t play better than we’re playing right now, anyone in the field of 64 is going to beat us.”
The Bruins trailed by 16 points at one point in the first half and were down still by 12 at halftime. A furious second-half comeback brought the Bruins all the way back and with 6:30 remaining they led Cal by four. But on Ubaka’s clutch shooting the Bears managed to send the game into overtime, and once there the senior scored eight of Cal’s 15 points.
“Ayinde is a winner,” Cal coach Ben Braun said. “He’s willing to take charge. He’s willing to hit big shots.”
Meanwhile, UCLA star Arron Afflalo, recently named the conference’s player of the year, suffered through a miserable game. The junior scored just three points and fouled out in overtime. His lone field goal came on a layup in the first minute of overtime; aside from that, he managed just one free throw.
Fellow All-Pac-10 guard Darren Collison was just as off early, scoring no points in the first half before bringing UCLA back with 20 after halftime.
But with no Afflalo fireworks and Bruins forward Alfred Aboya fouling out late, the game was Ubaka’s to win.
“He was the best player on the floor,” Howland said, passing off any possibility that the losses could be good for UCLA in the upcoming tournament. “I’m going to go back right now and watch the film with my staff and I’m sure I won’t see any silver lining.”
And Cal, back to .500, not only has a chance at the NIT but also finds itself two wins away from a NCAA tournament berth.
“We withstood their runs,” a pleased Braun said. His Cal team defeated Oregon 63-61 at home and lost 92-84 on the road. “I don’t really care if it’s in the 60s or the 90s so long as Cal has one more point than Oregon.”