BEARS RALLY PAST DUCKS
IN KEY PAC-12 WIN, 86-83
Feb 17, 2012
Cal survived the Ducks best shot last night and remained in command of the Pac-12 Conference lead.
Down by eight points with five minutes left, the Golden Bears rallied behind seniors Harper Kamp and Jorge Gutierrez for an 86-83 win before 9,980 delirious fans at Haas Pavilion.
The victory sent the Bears (21-6, 11-3 Pac-12) into their home finale Saturday against Oregon State still standing atop the league standings. It was a solid win over a very good Oregon team who came into the game tied for second place.
Sophomore point guard Justin Cobbs played perhaps his best game yet as a Bear, scoring a career-high 28 points to go with eight assists, four steals and zero turnovers in 38 minutes.
“That was a lot of fun,” said Kamp, who scored seven of his 20 points in the final 1:09. “A little too much stress, but to see my team play the way they did, guys like J (Cobbs) stepping up, us making plays at the end, and having a lot of heart … those are the kind of games you want to play in.”
But only if the outcome goes the right way, Cal coach Mike Montgomery said.
“This is the kind of game you’ve got to have if you’re going to win a championship, where you take the other team’s best shot,” Montgomery said. “Oregon’s really good. I can’t imagine anyone in the league playing better than them right now.”
Except for the Golden Bears.
But the Ducks (18-8, 9-5) seemed in control when Carlos Emory pump-faked, stepped inside Kamp and hit a jump shot just before the shot-clock buzzer for a 73-65 lead with 5:32 left.
Yet the Bears clawed their way back in with pressure defense, steals, and shot blocking leading to much needed points. They outscored Oregon 21-10 the rest of the way, sparked by seven points by Kamp and big defensive plays by him, Gutierrez, Kravish, and Cobbs.
It wasn’t over until Oregon’s Devoe Joseph — who scored 33 points including two 3-pointers in the final 26.1 seconds — finally missed a 3 point attempt with only 3 seconds left.
“Devoe Joseph was spectacular,” Montgomery said.
Down by eight, Cal got within 73-71 on three straight baskets, the last two on layups by Cobbs.
But Montgomery was hit with a technical foul after the second one when he attempted to call a timeout and accidentally bumped the ref who moved into his path. Joseph made both free throws for a four-point lead.
Cal’s D then went to work and the Ducks had five straight possessions without scoring, turning the ball over on three of them. Gutierrez, quiet all night, was the game-changer. He forced Joseph into a backcourt violation and stole a pass by E.J. Singler.
When Gutierrez made two free throws with 1:41 left, the Bears led 76-75 — their first lead since 31-30.
Kamp then converted a layup and free throw, Cobbs scored a fast-break layup, and Kamp made two more free throws for an 83-77 lead with 32.8 seconds left.
“We just want to win,” Cobbs said. “We were competing tonight. We’re that much closer to being where we want to be.”
Kamp, playing the final home games of his Cal career, said he was a little worried midway through the second half.
“We all had our heads down a little bit,” he said. “Justin turned it up on defense, Jorge started making some plays. That’s when I knew we were going to win.”
Cal won despite the fact that their lead scorer, Allen Crabbe, who had 26 in the Bears’ 77-60 win at Eugene, scored just eight points and was held scoreless in the second half. Oregon made it a key objective to stop him in this game and it worked - but it repeatedly left open Cobbs and others who made the Ducks pay. Meanwhile, Gutierrez got in early foul trouble and had to sit much of the time Cal fell behind. He ultimately played the final 7:57 with four fouls, but had just seven points while playing in front of his parents and family, who traveled from Mexico for the game.
“We got aggressive at the end and stopped worrying about fouls,” Montgomery said. “We defended at the end.”
Cobbs said “bragging rights” were on the line during his shootout with Joseph, his former teammate at Minnesota. Even though Joseph ended up with a 33-28 point edge, he didn’t want to talk to Cobbs after the game. “We were supposed to hang out tonight. I don’t know if that’s going to happen now but I just wish him the best,” said Cobbs of his old friend. “Tonight he had a great performance, shot the ball well. I’m just happy we pulled it out.”
Notes:
- With tonight’s 86-83 victory, the Golden Bears have now defeated Oregon nine straight times; the most by either team in series history. Cal now leads the overall series 80 wins to Oregon’s 55.
- Mike Montgomery is now 12-1 against Oregon as Cal’s head coach. Overall he is 22-2 against the two Oregon schools.
- California’s 86 points were a season high for the Bears.
- The Bears improved to 21-6 overall this season; their best record thus far since winning the Pac-10 Championship in 2010-2011.
- Cal improves to 16-1 at Haas Pavilion this year.
- Sophomore G Justin Cobbs, who was Cal’s best offensive threat in the second half, ended the night as Cal’s leading scorer with a career-high 28 points, topping his previous high of 25. 19 of Cobbs’ points came in the second half. It was his fourth 20-point outing, this season. He also posted a game-high eight assists. Defensively, Cobbs garnered four steals, which tied his career high.
- With his seven points, senior G Jorge Gutierrez moved up to 27th place on Cal’s all-time scoring list. Defensively, Gutierrez registered one steal to give him 32 on the season and 141 for his career, moving him past Michael Chavez (1980-83) for sole possession of fifth place on Cal’s all-time career steals chart.
- Freshman F David Kravish ended the night with a game-high eight rebounds and a season-high tying 13 points.
- Senior F Harper Kamp finished with 20 points; two points shy of his season best. It was his second 20-point outing of the season.
- Cal remained undefeated this season when it posts a better shooting percentage than its opponent. The Bears shot 55.7 percent (34-61) from the field, while the Ducks shot 54.1 percent (33-61).
![#1 RUGBY BEARS POWERING THROUGH SEASON, FACE #3 GAELS THIS WEEKEND
BERKELEY - California and Saint Mary’s meet Sunday at 1 p.m. on Pat Vincent Field in an exciting contest between two of the top rugby programs in the nation.
The Gaels, who left for a spring tour with a 9-2 record, are in the midst of one their best seasons in recent memory. They will be hunting for their second win against the Golden Bears (15-1) in the last 33 years. Since 1980, Cal has beaten Saint Mary’s every time in the regular season and playoffs except once, a 1990 regular-season match played in Moraga.
“We are excited to play the match. Saint Mary’s is an excellent team that plays its best rugby at home,” said head coach Jack Clark. “It’s one of those really good sporting challenges that comes around every so often.”
The two teams have shared six common opponents in 2012: Utah, Stanford, Sacramento State, UCLA, Cal Poly and the University of British Columbia. Both Cal and Saint Mary’s have won five of those six matches. Coach Clark said he was particularly proud of the Bears 58-0 win at #19 UCLA and the 109-0 drubbing of Stanford at Palo Alto.
Saint Mary’s lost to British Columbia, 31-14, on Feb. 21, two days after Cal edged the Thunderbirds on Treasure Island and a little more than a month before the Bears brought home their sixth straight “World Cup” series from Canada with a 46-20 win at UBC. However, Cal was then upset by a team the Gaels beat when the Bears got edged by Cal Poly, 22-20 on Feb. 25 in San Luis Obispo, using a largely reserve-grade team. Most of the starters did not travel for that game, a decision which haunts coach Clark now. ”We shouldn’t have lost that one,” he lamented. “I didn’t think it would be that close but it was my fault not to have more of the team [t]here. I just wanted to give the starters a week off after a hard-fought win up at BC.”
The No. 8 position is a major question mark for the Bears on Sunday because the superb Danny Barrett is out with a season-ending injury. Clark has previously called Barrett the best collegiate player in America. Flyhalf Alex Aronson is another uncertainty as he continues to work his way back into the starting lineup after a prolonged injury absence.
Only four current Bears likely to play on Sunday - outside center Seamus Kelly, scrumhalf Connor Ring, prop Jeremy Deterding and lock Brendan Daly - would have faced the Gaels in their last 15-a-side meeting, a 60-34 Cal win one year ago in Moraga. Ring and Deterding are the only members of the Starting XV who will graduate this spring, leaving the Bears with the vast majority of its roster intact for the 2013 season.
“The development of this particular team has been fantastic to see,” coach Clark said. “We have steadily gained the type of maturity which accomplished teams carry with them into competition. We aren’t all that yet, but there is some very real promise to this team.”
California is the reigning national collegiate champion rugby team, and rugby is the oldest intercollegiate sport at the University, spanning 130 years. In the modern era (since the US Collegiate Rugby Association was formed) the Golden Bears have won 26 of the 32 national championships.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2fk9niha41roiri3o1_1280.png)
