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Cal cleans the glass in win over Washington
By Morris Phillips February 11, 2010 |
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If Cal is on the road to a first Pac-10 championship, then it was a good night to be home. Behind a big crowd that beat the evening commute to make the 6 p.m. tipoff and Jerome Randle’s quick release arsenal, the Bears blew past Washington 93-81 to maintain first place to themselves at 8-4 in conference. Randle tallied 21 of his game-high 33 points before halftime as the Bears built a 14-point lead. But what surprised both coaches, and played a major factor in the outcome, was Cal’s strong showing on the glass, a 37-30 advantage for the Bears that was a complete transformation from Cal’s timid effort at Washington last month. “Cal did a tremendous job,” Washington Coach Lorenzo Romar said. “They really hit the boards hard and I thought that was the difference in the first half, their ability to go out and get second chance points.” “They clearly backed us off up there, and got us back on our heels. And we knew that we couldn’t let that happen. You have to match them. They’re very physical and I thought that we did a much better job. Outrebounding them was huge,” Coach Mike Montgomery said. In the first 12 minutes, the Bears outrebounded Washington, 15-4, and established a double-digit lead. Washington’s leading scorer and rebounder, Quincy Poindexter, didn’t manage to grab one rebound the entire first half, as the Bears held a 25-12 rebounding edge at halftime. Conversely, in a 84-69 loss in Seattle on January 16, the Bears surrendered 20 offensive rebounds and got pushed around from the opening tip. With the playing field leveled on the glass, Randle made sure the scoreboard tipped completely in favor of the Bears. Against a Washington defense that forced him to play a step faster than necessary last month, Randle was patient on this night with his ballhandling and lightning-quick with his shot release throughout. The senior leader took over late in the first half, with seven consecutive Cal points as the lead ballooned briefly to 19 points. With the offensive outburst, Randle moved past Bob McKeen and Kevin Johnson on Cal’s all-time scoring list, an incredible accomplishment for the diminutive point guard who under former coach Ben Braun came off the bench for 36 games as a freshman and sophomore |
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