The California Golden Bears entered the Galen Center Thursday with first place on the line – as it has been in every game this Pac-10 season.
They jumped out to an early lead, then did not score a point for one-quarter of the game, and in the end fell to the USC Trojans, 66-63. Jerome Randle led all scorers with 29, while Patrick Christopher hit four of his first five, then none of his final nine shots for just 11 points.
The loss threw the conference race into a cocked hat. UCLA won an equally-close 77-73 game over Stanford, and Arizona State knocked off the Washington State Cougars in Pullman, while Washington re-inserted themselves into the race with a win over Arizona. There are four teams tied at 6-4, and two more a game back at 5-5, entering Saturday.
Cal and USC traded 10-0 runs, with the Bears using theirs to open up a 30-17 lead with 6:48 to play in the first half, keyed by eight points from Jerome Randle.
The Trojans responded in kind at that point, outscoring the Golden Bears 10-0 to close out the half trailing 30-27. Cal did not score a single point in nearly the final seven minutes. A play that typified those final minutes: Patrick Christopher released on the wing with 16 seconds to play. Nikola Knezevich did not see him in time, and got the pass to him not during the two seconds he was wide open, but just as Dwight Lewis caught up with Christopher. Lewis blocked the shot, grabbed the rebound, and came all the way back up the court to drop in a layup with six seconds left on the clock.
That four-point swing would leave a bilious taste in the Bears' mouth for a long time.
Earlier in the sequence, Jamal Boykin turned over the ball, with Marcus Johnson stealing it. As Johnson streaked in for a layup, Boykin fouled him, perhaps a bit too vigorously, as he was called for an intentional foul. Johnson converted one free throw, but Lewis made it a three-point play with the additional possession awarded the Trojans for the intentional foul.
The Bears seemed to lose focus and mental toughness in the first half, as they began taking shots early in the possession rather than moving the ball well.
It only got worse after halftime.
The Trojans scored 15 more to start the half, giving them a 25-0 run and a 42-30 lead. During the first timeout, according to radio broadcaster Todd McKim, Montgomery "challenged the manhood" of his players – and shortly after that, Randle, who earlier in the game had broken the Golden Bears career three-point field goal record, hit a pair of treys in a 31-second span to hoist Cal back into the contest at 42-36.
Still, the Bears had not scored a point in 10 minutes.
"It's like a broken record," said Calfornia coach Mike Montgomery, "although I can't remember the last time we allowed a team to go on a 25-sip run. We just lost our poise. SC gets after you, they get physical, and we just fell apart. Simmons made it difficult for Jerome, and everybody else stopped playing. They were looking around saying 'where's Jerome?' Jerome was up to his ass in alligators."
Cal then went to work on Marcus Simmons and got him to commit his third and fourth fouls. Simmons left the floor at 10:37 with Cal within five after an old-fashioned three-point play from Jorge Gutierrez.
Theo Robertson hit one of two free throws (he was in the midst of another "Theo Thursday", with the free throw being his second point of the night, after a 27-point effort Sunday) to close the gap to four, but on the trip back down the floor, Markhuri Sanders-Frison collected his fourth foul.
Gutierrez then imposed his will on the game, forcing a turnover, getting a rebound off the missed shot that resulted, having the ball poked away, then stealing it from Lewis and driving in for the layup to close the score to 47-44.
By the time the game had wound down to 7:45 left in the second half, 20 minutes after Cal's high-water mark 13-point lead, they had hit just five of their 27 shots over the 20 minutes, a dismal 22% success rate.
Randle hit a three to halve the deficit, but then the Bears missed two more shots, putting them in a six-for-30 run, as Gutierrez showed how far from 100% his knee really is by missing numerous layups.
"I'd be surprised if Jorge and Markhuri can play Saturday," Montgomery said. "We'll see. We sold out to try to win this one. They were on the floor, making plays, and we don't have enough guys who do that." Gutierrez played 27 minutes, and Sanders-Frison, who hobbled through the shoot-around earlier in the day, contributed a gutsy 14 minutes.
Randle then went to the line with three free-throw attempts, having missed both he took early in the half. He drained all three at 5:34, tying the game at 50.
After a Leonard Washington layup, Randle drained a 30-foot 3-ball to give Cal its first lead of the half, 53-52. The shot gave Randle 29 points and allowed him to pass Leonard Taylor at 1,609 points for 6th all-time.
The teams traded scores until Mike Gerrity drained an uncontested three with 1:55 to play, giving the Trojan a 59-57 lead. The Bears desperately needed a stop at some point, but didn't get one until a Gutierrez steal.
Gerrity apparently stuck a dagger in the Bears' heart with a three-pointer with 56 seconds left, and just 2 on the shot clock, giving USC a 62-57 lead. Randle hustled down court, drew a double-team, and dished off to Robertson for a three which he drained.
After a timeout, Cal fouled Marcus Johnson, a 52% free throw shooter, who was 4-of-5 before stepping to the line for a one-and-one with 26.6 seconds to play. The ploy worked when he rattled the free throw out and Robertson got the rebound.
Randle missed a three for the lead, but Robertson snared the offensive rebound, went up and was fouled. He needed to hit both to tie the game, but missed the first. Between Robertson and Randle, five free throws had been missed at that point – a month's worth for those two players, normally.
"We had no business being in it at the end, but we were, but missed a free throw at the end that would have tied it. That makes it impossible for them to foul you, if it's a two-point game, because we make free throws, usually," said an obviously frustrated Montgomery.
With 10 seconds on the clock, Robertson hit the second, and Nikola Knezevich entered for Randle.
With full-court pressure, Omondi Amoke fouled Nikola Vucevich immediately. Vucevich was 0-for-2 from the line when he stepped to the stripe. His first shot circled the rim and dropped.
Randle then returned to the floor. Vucevich's second floor again circumnavigated the rim and dropped in, giving USC a three-point lead with 8.9 seconds to play.
The proper play was for the Trojans to immediately foul as soon as the Bears inbounded the ball, before they could get off a three-point shot and earn three free throws.
They fouled Christopher with 3.6 seconds to play, but his back was to the basket. He had a one-and-one. The first dropped, making the score 64-62. He made the second also, and Cal fouled Vucevich on the inbounds with 2.5 seconds to play.
Again, the sophomore had the game in his hands, up 64-63 with a pair of charity-stripe shots. He drained the first, and also the second, again using the whole rim – after missing a pair, he hit four straight to close out the game.
Randle attempted a half-court three at the buzzer, which bounced off the side of the rim, and the Bears had fallen to 6-4 in the conference.
Key stats: The Trojans out-rebounded Cal 37-27, with 16 offensive rebounds. Points in the paint: USC 32, Cal 16. And, Cal shot 38.6% for the evening, including at least eight missed layups, some totally uncontested.
Montgomery was succinct in analyzing the stat sheet. "We just got killed on the boards. Between Jamal and Markhuri and Max, we had two rebounds from our big guys. Jorge gets eight, but how many layups did we miss? Some, we went up soft, and you can't do that because SC jumps. You have to create contact and rebound the ball."
"We now have three games where we've lost in the last one or two possessions."
Cal has to defeat UCLA at Pauley Saturday to come home in first place, with who knows how much company? The game is at 1:00 and will be televised nationally by CBS.
