Sports Radio Service


		UCLA hands Cal a loss in overtime By Morris Phillips January 6, 2010

	For the first time in as long as anyone could remember, Cal came into a showdown with UCLA as clearly the better team. But the Bears didn’t celebrate the occasion by playing the part. Instead the emotionally-flat Bears allowed the young Bruins to hang around and gain confidence, enough to carry them to a surprising 76-75 overtime victory that saddled Cal with its first loss at home this season. “We didn’t have any energy. They outhustled us to every loose ball, they out rebounded us significantly,” Coach Mike Montgomery said afterwards. “I don’t understand how we cannot treat a UCLA game as a big, big game in terms of coming out full of fire.” Cal (9-5, 1-1) had momentum on offense, shooting better than 57 percent in their previous four wins, but that all disappeared against UCLA. Despite the Bruins’ deficiencies defensively that forced Coach Ben Howland to resort playing zone in recent games, Cal struggled to find a rhythm. “Every time we tried to run something we put the ball down on the floor and tried to make a play individually rather than moving the ball,” Montgomery said. UCLA’s struggles this year have been well documented as players leaving early for the NBA, and youthful inexperience have rendered the Bruins ordinary. Over the first 27 minutes against Cal, the problems surfaced as the Bruins struggled to get quality shots and 13 turnovers led to huge disparity in fast break points for Cal. The Bears established their biggest lead at 32-21, but then Michael Roll (19 points) and Nikola Dragovich (18 points) combined to hit seven 3-pointers which cut Cal’s lead to eight at the half, and got the Bruins within 52-50 with 10 minutes remaining. Jerome Randle had a tough night shooting, making just one of eight 3-point tries, but his deep three with 1:08 remaining in regulation gained the Bears a tie at 63. When UCLA’s Reeves Nelson attempted to score in the paint with seconds remaining, he was stripped by Patrick Christopher, who then dribbled up, but missed a long jumper at the buzzer. In overtime, Roll’s jump shot was the difference, giving the Bruins the lead with 1.9 seconds remaining. Jamal Boykin got a 35-footer off at the buzzer, but it fell short.