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LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Ryan Forehan-Kelly matched a career high with 20 points as No. 25 California advanced to the semifinals of the Pac-10 tournament with a 67-61 victory over UCLA. Forehan-Kelly made six 3-pointers for Cal, which next faces Arizona on Friday. The Wildcats defeated archrival Arizona State, 73-56, earlier on Thursday. Joe Shipp added 18 points for the Golden Bears (22-7), who defeated the Bruins (19-11) for the second time in three games this season. The home team had won the prior two matchups. In this one, Shipp gave Cal its biggest lead, 58-48, on an alley-oop dunk with 4:55 left. UCLA redshirt freshman Ryan Walcott responded with eight points during an 11-1 run, including a floater in the lane to tie the game with 2:05 left. Freshman reserve Amit Tamir gave Cal the lead for good at 61-59 on a reverse layup with 1:39 to go. Brian Wethers and A.J. Diggs each hit two free throws to give the Bears a six-point cushion with 11.8 seconds left. "I was proud of our team because we were playing a really talented team in UCLA," Cal coach Ben Braun said. "Boy, give them credit. UCLA erased 10 points about as quick as a team can erase 10 points. What I liked about our response is that we didn't get down. We didn't hang our heads, we put together a surge." "It was obviously a disappointing loss," said UCLA coach Steve Lavin, whose team has lost six of its last 11 games. "The team did a great job of fighting from 10 down to tie the game up. Those two possessions, not getting the stop defensively, let the offense get a good look at the basket inside." Wethers added 11 points, four rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block for Cal. "I thought Brian was all over the ball and all over the glass," Braun said. "Brian is so strong to the ball. That's important. He really got some key defensive rebounds. He's been playing really aggressively lately." Matt Barnes paced UCLA with 15 points. Jason Kapono, the team's leading scorer at more than 16 points per game, was held to 10 on 4-of-13 shooting. "We came out tense and really wanted to have a good showing, but they are a good team," Kapono said. "They played solid defense and we just played sloppy." Cal led by nine points on three occasions in the first half en route to a 34-31 advantage at the break. The Bruins scored the first four points of the second half before the Bears went on a 9-0 run. Cal's lead held until Walcott's jumper tied the game at 59 with just over two minutes left. The game was Cal's first since a 99-53 blowout loss to Arizona last Saturday -- the second-worst defeat in school history. "We worked real hard in practice all week," Forehan-Kelly said. "I think our effort was poor when we lost the game to Arizona, but we worked hard on effort all week." "A lot of teams, after a tough loss like we had against Arizona, could have been doubting themselves, doubting each other and maybe questioning themselves," Braun said. "I don't think our players for a moment came out with any indication that there was any leftover from that game. We managed to put a tough day behind us. That was a really tough game for us, but our players bounced back with a big effort." UCLA awaits an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament. "It would've helped if we'd gotten two or three wins here," Lavin said. "We might have been a four or five or a three seed, but now could be a six, a seven or a nine. It's hard to ever really predict. But obviously it would've helped to have gotten the win tonight." . |
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