College basketball inside
Cal upsets Oregon: Jabari Bird, above, scores 24 points as the Bears rout the No. 11 Ducks.
Gaels’ first home loss: Pepperdine damages St. Mary’s chances for the WCC regular- season title and an at- large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Oregon State beats Stanford: The Cardinal’s disheartening home loss is a reversal of a six- point Stanford win in Corvallis a month ago.
Jabari Bird was dozing off in class Thursday when a text message jolted the junior guard awake: “Tyrone ( Wallace) is cleared for takeoff.”
Head coach Cuonzo Martin’s quick update, sent to the Cal team thread, helped inspire the Bears’ most complete performance of the season. With its All- Pac- 12 point guard back after missing five games with a hand injury, Cal never trailed as it cruised to an 83- 63 rout of No. 11 Oregon.
The win put the Bears above .500 in Pac- 12 play and 15- 0 at home this season. For the second time in three weeks, they toppled a top- 15 team in their friendly confines. A Cal squad that has lagged behind its own expectations for months is beginning to resemble the group pundits had anticipated in the preseason.
“It’s a big confidence booster,” said Bird, who tied his career high with 24 points on 9- for- 14 shooting ( 5- for- 8 from three- point range). “Now that we’ve got Tyrone back, got a ‘ W’ over the best team in the conference at home, we’ve got to keep up our home streak.”
The Bears, who lost at Oregon on Jan. 6, spent much of this week trying to figure out the Ducks’ matchup zone defense. Cal shot 55.7 percent from the floor in Thursday’s game, including 9- for- 16 beyond the arc. The Bears outrebounded the undersized Ducks 39- 26, which paved the way for their 27- 8 edge on secondchance points. Cal recorded assists on 20 of its 34 field goals.
But stingy defense has been at the root of the Bears’ unblemished home record, and Thursday was no outlier. Cal ( 16- 8, 6- 5 Pac- 12) held its opponent to 35.7 percent shooting as it built an 18- point halftime lead. Unable to find much traction in the key, Oregon ( 20- 5, 9- 3) missed 13 three- point attempts.
“We got kicked,” Ducks head coach Dana Altman said. “I don’t know how else to put it.”
The Ducks arrived at Haas Pavilion as the class of the Pac- 12. They boasted a six- game winning streak, the nation’s No. 2 RPI and a 1 ½ - game lead over USC for the top spot in the Pac- 12 standings.
But for all their road warts, the Bears are one of the nation’s best when in Berkeley. Hitting its first five threes helped Cal race to a 29- 9 lead. Bird, more a role player than standout this season, poured in 16 first- half points.
Oregon never seriously threatened. With 6: 13 left, Cal called for time after an 8- 0 Ducks spurt trimmed its lead to 68- 52. The Bears responded with two quick layups.
“This is how we need to win,” Martin said. “We have to play as a unit. If we defend at a high level, we’ll give ourselves the chance to win games.”
Wallace hadn’t practiced live for almost a month before getting cleared Thursday. After going scoreless in the first half, he found his rhythm and finished with 10 points, eight rebounds and four assists.
“Guys were excited to have him back,” said Martin, whose Bears host Oregon State on Saturday.