Second-Half Start Sends California Past No. 9 Arizona

California overcame a defensive and coaching lapse with hot second half shooting Thursday night in Oakland to give Arizona a rude welcome to another Pacific 10 season and remind the Wildcats that the calendar has turned.

Freshman Shareef Abdur-Rahim scored 22 points, including 11 during a 16-5 Cal run to open the second half, and the Bears (6-3) made 11 three-point baskets in a 99-75 defeat of No. 9 Arizona.

It was the worst loss for the Wildcats since a 111-58 defeat at UCLA in 1983.

“I think a lot of teams feel if they can contain me, they can control our offense,” said Abdur-Rahim, who averages 23 points a game. “But I think tonight we showed them we have some other offensive weapons.”

Among those other weapons, Ed Gray added 22 points and Randy Duck had 20 for the Bears, who had fallen out of the top 25 while losing three of their previous four games.

Arizona lost the game and its poise, taking itself out of contention with three technical fouls, including one against Reggie Geary for jamming the ball on the chest of Cal’s Prentice McGruder after committing a foul. Another technical foul was called on Coach Lute Olson.

The technicals led to 13 Bear points.

Cal had also lost its poise near the end of the first half, blowing a 41-32 lead with 2:25 to play when Arizona scored 11 points in a row, three of them as a result of a technical foul on Bear Coach Todd Bozeman.

Gray scored 15 points in a reserve role in the first half and gave Cal a 44-43 halftime lead with a three-pointer in the closing seconds of the first half.

Ben Davis had a career-high 20 points for Arizona (10-2, 0-1).

Stanford 83, Arizona State 70--Andy Poppink scored 25 points and David Harbour had 22 for the Cardinal (7-2), which won the season opener for both teams at Palo Alto.

Dion Cross added 15 points and Brevin Knight 11 for Stanford, which won for only the second time in its last eight games against Arizona State (5-4, 0-1).

Stanford, up by four points at halftime, opened the second half with a 9-0 run, starting with a three-point basket by Knight, and that took care of the Sun Devils.