UA’S 2nd-half slump costly
Cal defense frustrates Cats in loss
TUCSON — Allen Crabbe scored 19 of his 31 points in the second half, Justin Cobbs hit a big shot in the closing seconds and California held its composure down the stretch to knock off No. 7 Arizona 77-69 Sunday night.
Cal (14-9, 6-5 Pac-12) rallied from a 15-point deficit behind its defense against Arizona State on Thursday before coming up just short in a 66-62 loss. The Bears did the same thing to UA, keying a big run that put them up 10 with their zone.
Cal held on behind Crabbe and Cobbs, who scored on a layup with 39 seconds left and had 21 points.
UA (20-3, 8-3) never fully recovered after struggling against Cal’s zone defense to open in the second half and had 17 turnovers to end a five-game winning streak.
Mark Lyons had 16 points, Solomon Hill added 13 and Brandon Ashley 12 for the Wildcats, the sixth top-10 team to lose in the last week.
UA has had a penchant for getting off to slow starts this season — particularly at home, of all
places.
The Wildcats did it against Florida in a matchup of top-10 teams in December before rallying for a victory and did the same thing against Stanford in their last game to avoid spoiling the 40th anniversary of McKale Center opening its doors.
UA wasn’t so fortunate against UCLA on Jan. 24, unable to fully recover after missing 12 of its first 13 shots and falling behind 19-3.
UA struggled with its shooting early and had some breakdowns defensively, allowing Cal to make 15 of 28 shots and Crabbe to score 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting.
“I really can’t think of any other moment in college where I felt this great,” Crabbe said.
The Wildcats still managed to lead 38-33 at halftime, thanks to Hill’s 11 points and 10-of-13 shooting from the free-throw line.
The Bears helped UA out with eight mostly careless turnovers — two by David Kravish sailed directly into the crowd — that led to 12 points for UA.
Once the second half started, Cal tried to run away with it.
The Bears gave ASU problems by switching defenses with 8 minutes left in Thursday’s game. Cal got its defensive mojo going earlier against UA by switching to a zone to start the second half.
“We let the zone affect us and didn’t get the ball movement we needed,” Hill said. “When you don’t get things rolling on the offensive end, it takes you mentally away from the game.”
Indecisive and tentative, the Wildcats opened the half by missing nine of their first10 shots against the Bears’ zone, many of those late in the shot clock and contested.
“We took ill-advised shots,” UA coach Sean Miller said. “It looked as if we had no idea what we were during for that brief three-minute period.”
California Cobbs 34 8-14 4-4 0-3 4 2 21 Wallace 34 2-8 0-0 0-4 7 2 5 Crabbe 36 12-15 3-4 1-7 5 3 31 Solomon 28 2-3 2-2 0-2 1 4 6 Kravish 33 4-7 0-0 2-6 1 3 8 Smith 16 0-1 0-0 0-2 1 1 0 Bak 6 2-2 2-2 0-0 0 2 6 Powers 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Thurman 10 0-1 0-0 1-2 0 0 0 Totals 200 30-51 11-12 5-31 19 17 77 Percentages: FG .588, FT .917. 3-point goals: 6-13, .462 (Crabbe 4-7, Cobbs 1-2, Wallace 1-4). Team rebounds: 5. Blocked shots: 5 (Solomon 2, Kravish 2, Crabbe). Turnovers: 13 (Cobbs 6, Solomon 2, Crabbe 2, Kravish, Smith, Thurman). Steals: 3 (Cobbs 2, Solomon). Arizona FG FT Reb
Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS Lyons 29 5-14 2-4 0-5 3 3 16 Johnson 37 2-8 2-4 0-2 5 2 7 Ashley 29 4-10 4-5 5-9 0 2 12 Tarczewski 16 2-2 2-3 1-2 0 1 6 Hill 38 4-12 3-4 1-4 3 1 13 Parrom 21 3-6 0-0 2-2 1 0 7 Mayes 7 0-1 2-2 0-1 1 0 2 Chol 6 0-0 1-2 1-1 0 0 1 Jerrett 17 2-3 0-0 0-1 0 3 5 Totals 200 22-56 16-2411-28 13 12 69 Percentages: FG .393, FT .667. 3-point goals: 9-18, .500 (Lyons 4-6, Hill 2-6, Jerrett 1-1, Johnson 1-2, Parrom 1-3). Team rebounds: 1. Blocked shots: 3 (Tarczewski 2, Hill). Turnovers: 9 (Parrom 3, Lyons 2, Tarczewski 2, Ashley, Hill). Steals: 9 (Ashley 2, Johnson 2, Lyons 2, Jerrett, Hill, Mayes). California Arizona A— 14,545. Officials — Mike Scyphers, Dick Cartmell, Frank Harvey, III.
FG FT Reb Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS 33 38 44 — 31 — 77 69