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		Cal's hot shooting buries UCLA, 85-69 By Morris Phillips December 31, 2011

	Mike Montgomery worried so that his reed thin forward David Kravish would get roughed up in his matchup with UCLA’s 280-pound Josh Smith, the coach joked that he apologized to the freshman for putting him up to such a task. No worries. In the end--after Cal demolished the Bruins, 85-69, with a near-perfect second half—Kravish wondered if Montgomery knew what he was in for. “He was telling us that were fighting and that we just had to come out in the second half and play hard,” Kravish said in describing Montgomery’s halftime speech. “I don’t know if he was ready for what we came out with, but we came out hard.” What the Bears came out with was a clinic on ball movement leading to great shot opportunities for all six Cal players that saw action after the break. They also followed the coaching adjustments to the letter, harassing the Bruins on the perimeter while battling for every rebound. All this after the Bears shot 68 percent in the first half, but led by only one point. “I was pretty happy with both halves, to be honest with you,” Montgomery said. “I thought that we played very well in the first half, but I thought UCLA played well, also. Tyler Lamb had 16 points in the first half and his career-high was 17. He kind of kept them in.” But in the decisive 13-2 Cal run to begin the second half, the Bruins blinked. Lamb missed a pair of shots and his UCLA teammates committed three turnovers as the Bears seized control. Kravish had already done his star turn in the first half with eight consecutive Cal points but he saved a trick for the Bears' big run: a step away catch-and-shoot jumper that took advantage of Smith and his lack of quickness with Justin Cobbs providing the perfectly timed pass. And when the decisive run ended, the Bears did not, compiling 28 assists on 34 baskets, putting six players in double figures and repeatedly beating the Bruins inside with opportunistic entry passes and finishes. Cal shot 63 percent in the second half, barely a drop from their shooting in the first 20 minutes. “I can’t really think of a time where we distributed the ball and got after loose balls like that,” Montgomery gushed. “We didn’t let the physical play bother us. They got some offensive rebounds, obviously, but we held our own, there.” The Bears opened 2-0 in conference play for the first time in three seasons, joining Washington and Stanford at the top of the Pac-12 standings. Cal has won the first 11 contests of the season at Haas Pavilion and they beat UCLA for the fourth time in the last five meetings. Kravish (13 points) and Robert Thurman (11) both established career highs in points as Thurman had a breakout performance, scoring all of his points in the Bears’ runaway second half. The matchup of conference rivals mirrored both programs fortunes over the last three plus seasons in which UCLA has come back to earth and Cal has gained prominence under Montgomery’s leadership. While UCLA has dialed back on the recruiting trail—reportedly because Coach Ben Howland no longer wanted to see NBA early-entry players use his program as a pit stop—the Bears have had modest success, settling for unheralded recruits time and time again. Howland clearly hasn’t gotten what he bargained for as Jrue Holiday—a cerebral player who the UCLA coach felt would stay and develop—instead bolted for the NBA while other players, including Mike Moser and Chase Stanback, have transferred out only to star at other programs. Cal’s modest recruiting successes were on display on Saturday--in Cal uniforms--taking advantage of UCLA’s bevy of top-100 recruits. Not only was there Kravish getting the best of McDonald's All-American Smith, there was Harper Kamp battling the Wear twins, who originally signed and played at North Carolina. Also, Jorge Gutierrez, a Denver prep who was available as Montgomery’s first recruit late in the signing period after Montgomery agreed to coach the Bears in 2008, took his stellar defense to Jerime Anderson and heralded junior-college transfer Lazeric Jones. The Bears look to keep the hot shooting and winning intact next weekend with a visit to Oregon to take on the Beavers (0-2 in Pac-12 play) and the Ducks (1-1).