The Associated Press UCLA’s Matt Barnes,
center, is surrounded by California defenders Brian
Wethers, left, Shantay Legans, bottom,
Nick Vander Laan during the first half in the
Bruins 92-63 loss. Cal 92 UCLA 63
By Chris Umpierre
Daily Bruin Staff
BERKELEY, Calif. “”mdash; UCLA should have known it was in for a
long night.
Minutes before UCLA’s game against California, Bruin
forward Jason Kapono was walking toward the Bruin bench when he was
rudely greeted by the Cal mascot. As he walked by Kapono, Oski the
mascot purposely bumped Kapono with his shoulder.
Kapono turned around in disbelief to see what had hit him.
The Bruins (12-6, 6-2 Pac-10) found themselves doing the exact
same thing after Cal (15-5, 5-2) jumped on the Bruins early and
never let up, hammering UCLA 92-63 in front of a soldout Haas
Pavilion on Thursday night.
It was Cal’s second-largest win ever over UCLA. One has to
go back to the 1922-1923 season to find a larger winning margin.
That season, California beat the Bruins 49-16.
“I take the blame for this loss,” UCLA head coach
Steve Lavin said. “I didn’t have my team ready to play.
We got blitzkrieged. We got to examine our preparation for this
game because there was a major drop off in the second half against
Oregon and the first half against Cal.
“That being said, let’s not take anything away from
Cal because they played a magic-level game,” he added.
“It reminded me a lot of our game against Maryland last
year.”
Up 9-6 three minutes into the game, Cal went on a 23-6 run over
the next eight minutes to take a commanding 32-12 lead. They did so
with a hail of three pointers and easy layups.
Reverting back to early-season form, UCLA routinely failed to
get back in transition and continually left players open on the
perimeter. It was a common sight to see Cal players hoist up
wide-open threes with Bruin players running at them too late.
Cal, which entered the game shooting 34 percent from three point
land, nailed a school-record 13 threes in the game. They finished
shooting an amazing 60 percent (13 of 22) from behind the arc.
Every Cal player short of the water boy got into the act. When
all was said and done, six Bears finished in double digits. Forward
Ryan Forehan-Kelly led the way with a game-high 16 points,
including four three-pointers.
“It’s always embarrassing when you lose by this
many,” UCLA point guard Earl Watson said. “If you lose
by more than 10 points it’s embarrassing. The good thing is
they have to come back to L.A. I believe in karma.”
UCLA forward Matt Barnes said after the game that he
didn’t think Cal would continue its red-hot shooting in the
second half.
In last year’s game in Berkeley, Cal jumped out to a
19-point lead over the Bruins. The Bears then collapsed as UCLA
roared back for an 83-62 win.
The Bears, one year older and wiser, refused to allow that to
happen on Thursday. Instead of letting up in the second half, Cal
drove its sword through UCLA’s heart, increasing its 20-point
halftime lead to as much as 30.
“We thought we took their best punch in the first
half,” said Barnes, who after a breakout game against Oregon
last week had zero points on 0 of 7 shooting. “But in the
second half they came out even hotter. There wasn’t much we
could do tonight. It was one of those nights that they had
everything going and we had nothing.”
There is no doubt the rambunctious crowd played a significant
role in the blowout. Students brought signs that had a picture of
former Boston Celtic head coach Rick Pitino with the words “I
got next, Lavin” scribbled below.
When the Bears went on their run in the first half, the crowd
was going bonkers.
“Haas Pavilion is one of the best facilities in
America,” Lavin said. “The crowd had great energy and I
think that Cal’s fans were tremendous. They were on their
feet the whole time.”
But things won’t get any easier for UCLA, as the Bruins
play No. 1 Stanford in Maples Pavilion on Saturday.
“We’ve got to learn from this game and move past it
because in less than 48 hours we play the No. 1 team in the
country,” Lavin said.