PACIFIC 10 CONFERENCE ROUNDUP : Cal Latest to Notice That Washington Is for Real

California, with the recent return of forward Tremaine Fowlkes from NCAA suspension, was supposed to be shifting into high gear at this stage of the Pacific 10 basketball season.

Instead, the No. 25-ranked Bears had to yield the Pacific 10’s fast lane Saturday to the Washington Huskies, who continued their surprising run at the conference title with a 71-69 victory at Seattle.

Washington (12-4 overall, 10-1 at home and 5-2 in the Pacific 10) won its third game in a row and has its best record at this stage of the season since a 13-3 start in 1984. The Huskies haven’t had a winning season since 1987.

Cal (11-5, 6-2) scored the game’s last eight points but missed three shots in the final 10 seconds to fall out of first place in the conference. UCLA leads at 6-1.

“With three minutes to go, Tremaine [Fowlkes] said to me, ‘You guys are good. I didn’t respect you coming into the game, but I do now,’ ” said Washington guard Jamie Booker, whose team gained that respect despite being outrebounded, 52-34, and outshot from the field and on free throws.

Cal freshman center Shareef Abdur-Rahim led all scorers with 24 points. Fowlkes had 15 points and 11 rebounds while the player he replaced at starting forward, Jelani Gardner, did not play for the second game in a row.

Washington had four players score in double figures, with guard Bryant Boston getting 15.

No. 13 Arizona 70, Oregon 65--The Wildcats (15-3, 5-2) needed 60% shooting in the second half and four free throws in the final 15 seconds at Eugene, Ore., to beat the Ducks (9-9, 2-5) for the 10th consecutive time.

Oregon guard Jamal Lawrence had a career-high 34 points, making six of eight three-point shots.

Center Ben Davis led Arizona with 19 points and 11 rebounds.

Stanford 78, Washington State 67--Four starters fouled out for the already-thin Cougars (8-7, 1-6), who have lost all four of their conference home games.

Washington State committed 32 fouls, allowing Stanford (11-5, 5-3) to compile a decisive 31-18 advantage in free throws made. Each of the Cardinal starters also had at least three fouls but only one, forward Andy Poppink, fouled out.

Stanford guards Dion Cross and Brevin Knight scored 22 and 19 points, respectively, and combined to make 11 of 21 shots and 17 of 20 free throws.

Washington State guards Donminic Ellison and Isaac Fontaine shot poorly before fouling out. Fontaine made only six of 19 shots in scoring 17 points and Ellison missed all seven of his shots and had one point.

Arizona State 93, Oregon State 75--Guard Jeremy Veal made his first five shots and finished with a game-high 27 points for the Wildcats (7-8, 2-5) at Corvallis, Ore.

Arizona State made 13 of 28 three-point shots and was also uncharacteristically accurate in free throws, making 16 of 19.

Oregon State (3-13, 1-6) missed 15 of its first 24 shots in falling behind by as many as 26 points.

Pac-10 Standings

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Team Conf. Overall UCLA 6 1 13 5 California 6 2 11 5 Arizona 5 2 15 3 Washington 5 2 12 4 Stanford 5 3 11 5 USC 3 4 10 8 Oregon 2 5 9 9 Arizona State 2 5 7 8 Washington State 1 6 8 7 Oregon State 1 6 3 13

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