National Basketball Association
California 83, Oregon 63
When: 9:00 PM ET, Thursday, February 11, 2016
Where: Haas Pavilion, Berkeley, California
Officials:
# Dick Cartmell, # Bert Smith, # Deron White
Attendance:
10628
By The Sports Xchange
BERKELEY, Calif. -- When California plays at Haas Pavilion, the Bears look like the team they was expected to be.
The Bears proved that again Thursday when they took a 20-point lead 10 minutes into the game, thanks in large part to the 3-point shooting of guard Jabari Bird, and crushed No. 11 Oregon 83-63.
Cal, which was picked to finish second in the Pac-12 behind Arizona and was ranked No. 14 in the Associated Press preseason poll, is now 15-0 at home after ending Oregon's six-game winning streak and handing the Ducks (20-5, 9-3 Pac-12) their most lopsided loss of the season.
"We got kicked; I don't know how else to put it," Oregon coach Dana Altman said. "This is the Cal team you expect when you play them at home. They are a talented team."
Oregon is the third team that came into Haas Pavilion with a national ranking and exited with a loss, joining Utah and Arizona. The problems for the Bears (16-8, 6-5) come on the road, as they are 0-5 in conference games.
The Bears got an added boost Thursday when guard Tyrone Wallace played for the first time after missing five games with a broken right hand.
He thought this was Cal's best game of the season.
"I think we did a lot of things well," Wallace said.
Cal shot 55.7 percent from the floor and made nine of 16 3-point shots while limiting Oregon to its second-lowest point total of the season.
Bird led the Bears with five 3-pointers and 24 points. Three of his long-range shots came in the first five minutes as the Bears jumped to an 18-6 lead that was expanded to 29-9 at the 10-minute mark.
"Right out of the gate, he hit big shots that helped us get the lead," Wallace said. "He had fun out there, and you could tell."
"Jabari really got it going tonight," Altman said. "It can be easy to overlook a guy like Jabari when you have to worry about (forward Jaylen) Brown driving and Ivan (Rabb) at the post. Once they got the threes going, they really spread us out, and we just couldn't recover."
Rabb scored 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting, and Brown added 16 points. Cal guard Sam Singer had 11 assists.
Bird also did a nice defensive job on forward Dillon Brooks, Oregon's leading scorer, who finished with 17 points but had only two in the first half when Cal took command.
"I just tried to make it tough for him," Bird said. "Try to make hits tough twos."
Apparently Bird got an emotional boost earlier in the day when he learned that Wallace was cleared and would play against the Ducks.
Bird admitted he might have been dozing in class when he got the text message from coach Cuonzo Martin telling him Wallace would be available. That woke him up.
"We're not the team we need to be without Tyrone," Martin said.
Wallace had 10 points, eight rebounds and four assists in 28 minutes off the bench.
The Bears dominated all but a short stretch of the second half. They held a 66-41 lead with 8:17 remaining, but Oregon got the deficit down to 15 points by forcing a few Cal turnovers with its pressure defense. A basket by Brooks at the 5:40 mark made it 70-55.
That was as close as the Ducks could get.
NOTES: California G Tyrone Wallace played Thursday without participating in a single practice since he broke his hand on Jan. 16. He did not start against the Ducks, with Sam Singer starting at point guard for the sixth straight game. ... Oregon handed both Arizona and Utah their first home losses of the season but was unable to do it against Cal. ... The Bears finished with a 39-26 rebounding advantage.
Top Game Performances
Oregon |
|
California |
Dillon Brooks 17 |
Scoring |
Jabari Bird 24 |
Jordan Bell 2 |
Assists |
Sam Singer 10 |
Chris Boucher 6 |
Rebounds |
Tyrone Wallace 8 |
Dillon Brooks 4 |
Free Throws Made |
Sam Singer 2 |
Chris Boucher 2 |
Steals |
Jabari Bird 2 |
Jordan Bell 3 |
Blocks |
Ivan Rabb 3 |
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
Oregon
|
63 |
42.6 |
5-18 |
12-21 |
13 |
23 |
5 |
6 |
9 |
California
|
83 |
55.7 |
9-16 |
6-12 |
20 |
36 |
5 |
5 |
11 |