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		Cal sleepy in first half collapse at Washington By Morris Phillips January 16, 2010

	The big Pac-10 showdown between Washington and California earned an 11:30am start time as the perfect television lead-in to a NFL playoff Saturday. Then the Bears went out and played so poorly, their game was rendered unwatchable. Washington outscored Cal 26-4 in a five-minute stretch of the first half leading to an easy Washington 84-69 win in Seattle. After a quick start in which Cal held leads of 5-0 and 8-7, the Bears collapsed. Washington, which needs turnovers to breathe, and fast breaks to eat, got plenty of sustenance courtesy of the Bears. In fact, Cal’s contributions to the Huskies 50-31 halftime lead were so varied, 15 Bears’ turnovers told only part of the story. A quick shot by D.J. Seeley led to a rebound, fast break and a pair of free throws all courtesy of point guard Isiah Thomas. Jerome Randle attempted a near impossible cross court pass that was deflected, then touched by Patrick Christopher before landing out of bounds. On the next possession, Randle raced up court, then dribbled the ball off his trail leg for another turnover. Right after that Washington power guy Tyreesee Breshers missed three straight lay-ins, but grabbed offensive rebounds each time before scoring on the fourth attempt, all while Cal defenders were stuck to the floor. After that Markhuri Sanders-Frison shuffled his feet attempting a shot in the paint, and Omondi Amoke threw a two-foot pass to a teammate three feet away with a defender in between. Both of those turnovers led to Washington points as the Huskies led by as many as 24 in the opening half. “They played harder than we did,” Coach Mike Montgomery conceded. “They were more physical than we were.” Randle, who lit up Washington State with a 28-point second half just 30 hours earlier, unfortunately was the headliner in Cal’s tragic comedy. His line: 0 for 2 from the field and seven turnovers with only one assist. After the final turnover, Montgomery pulled Randle, who watched the final four minutes of the half from the bench. Afterwards, he confided that his knee, injured late in the Washington State game, was bothering him. “I wasn’t fast like I was any other time. I wanted to try and play through it, but (Washington) played great,” Cal’s leading scorer said. “I tip my hat to them. They came out ready to play.” Along with the first-half lowlights already touched upon, the Bears missed 13 free throws (16 for 29), shot 1 for 6 from three, and allowed nine offensive rebounds. With the thrashing of the Bears coming on the heels of a 33-point win over Stanford, Washington couldn’t be faulted for taking credit for ruining the Bay Area schools’ trip to the Northwest. “We did a really good job on our defensive pressure this weekend,” Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said. “I think maybe that was one of the biggest improvements that we’ve made.” The blowout was just one of the surprising results in the topsy-turvy Pac-10, which saw three road teams grab wins on Saturday. Now with a third of the conference season completed, just a game and a half separates first place Arizona State from last place UCLA. From Cal’s perspective, both Washington and Arizona State have rebounded from awful starts in conference, and it’s likely those two will fight Cal for the conference crown. Now Cal gets an opportunity to hold serve next week at home against the Oregon schools.