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Cal beats Stanford, wins Pac-10 title outright
By Morris Phillips March 6, 2010 |
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When you win, you want to win in style. And with a 71-61 win at Stanford, the Cal Bears added shine to their first conference championship in 50 years, by winning the Pac-10 outright, and avoiding sharing the crown with Arizona State. Patrick Christopher, who missed all three of his 3-point attempt in the opening 20 minutes, led the Bears with 23 points, as well as a big steal, followed by a 3-pointer that put Cal up 67-59 with 1:42 remaining. Christopher came up with 16 of his 23 points in the second half, while his teammates struggled with their shooting. His clutch play at both ends of the floor bailed out Cal on a day that leading-scorer Jerome Randle managed just 11 points and defensive whiz Jorge Gutierrez left early with a sprained ankle. “I thought he had a tough shot because Jarrett (Mann) was right there. Whether you’re in man or zone, the shot he hit was a tough shot. It was a deep three with a hand in his face. Give the kid credit,” Coach Johnny Dawkins said of Christopher’s big shot. “Patrick came out and was really aggressive on the offensive end and we played great team defense,” Randle said. The Bears (21-9, 13-5) now enter their Pac-10 tournament opener with wins in seven of their last eight games, and some leverage with the NCAA Tournament selection committee. With Cal’s big finish in conference, along with the less than compelling cases being made by teams on the NCAA bubble, making an exhausting run at the conference tournament title doesn’t seem critical to Cal’s being included in the field of 65. Coach Mike Montgomery said that despite his team’s injury situation, he will lengthen his bench next week and keep the immediate focus on winning their quarterfinal game on Thursday at 2:30pm. Avoiding a “bad loss” against Oregon or Washington State, who open the tournament on Wednesday, is critical to Cal’s NCAA seeding. Currently, Cal looks to be anywhere from an eight to a ten seed, with the possibility that a tourney championship could get them as high as a seventh seed. For Stanford (13-17, 7-11), the Cardinal end the regular season tied for eighth place, after being predicted to finish last, but they suffered a deflating end to their regular season, dropping their final four home games. Landry Fields, the Pac-10 leading scorer, finished with 25 points, but Cal’s revolving door of defenders wore on him, as he missed 11 of his 21 shots, including all four of his 3-point attempts. Cal also had success with Jeremy Green, Stanford’s other explosive scorer, who missed seven of his first eight shots and finished with 13 points. The Cardinal open the Pac-10 tournament Thursday night against second-seeded Arizona State. Montgomery, when questioned, said little of the significance of his first win at Maples Pavilion as a visitor. Even in preparation for this week’s game, Montgomery didn’t want his guys reflecting on last year’s disappointing loss at Stanford that dropped the Bears from the Top 25 and started a mini-slide that kept them from seriously challenging for the conference crown. The long-time Stanford coach did reflect briefly on his 18-year run on the Farm, saying that the initial group he inherited, featuring Todd Lichti and Howard Wright, was far more talented than anyone could have imagined, and he succeeded at a place where Coach Tom Davis, who he replaced, thought it would be impossible to win consistently. “We were able to win with that group, and that kind of set the tone. Then we had a little drop off and then Brevin (Knight) came in, and the rest is kind of history. So that was all pleasing. We had a great program,” Montgomery said. OK, that’s a rare visit to past successes that the ultra-serious (with an occasional case of the funnies) Montgomery normally would detour around. Maybe this could be his time to open up. So what of his unbridled excitement in the aftermath of Cal’s run to the conference title? “That just means that the staff and the guys that are working for me... we’re doing what were supposed to do. I like that. I think that’s good,” he said. "But it's kind of not about me. It's kind of about a lot of people doing a lot of stuff. And mostly it's about the kids doing what they're supposed to do. I haven't scored a basket yet." |
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