Arizona Sweeps Cal With 99-53 Rout

In perhaps its biggest Pacific 10 Conference game ever, California came away with the second-worst loss in the school’s history.

Rick Anderson had 17 points to lead six Arizona scorers in double figures as the No. 14 Wildcats routed No. 21 California, 99-53, on Saturday at Tucson.

It was California’s worst loss since a 101-50 rout at Stanford two years ago. The Bears could have earned a share of the Pac-10 title with a victory and an Oregon loss to UCLA. Cal hasn’t won a conference championship in 42 years.

Oregon later defeated UCLA and secured the championship outright.

Cal Coach Ben Braun and his players seemed as perplexed as anyone by the team’s uninspired effort.

“I just don’t remember many times our team didn’t step up and meet the challenge,” Braun said. “It’s hard to explain.”

Arizona (19-9, 12-6 in the Pac-10) finished tied for second and will be seeded No. 2 in the Pac-10 tournament because the Wildcats won all possible tiebreakers.

The Wildcats held a players-only meeting before the game.

“We talked about either being the second seed or the sixth seed. That was a lot of motivation,” guard Jason Gardner said. “There were a lot of people saying we were going to finish fourth or fifth in the Pac-10. We wanted to prove everything wrong.”

The Bears (21-7, 12-6), swept by Arizona this season, fell behind 14-3, trailed by 19 points at halftime, then were buried by Wildcats with a 30-4 burst to start the second half.

“That’s what we don’t understand at this point,” Cal’s Brian Wethers said. “We knew how important of a game this was and to come out and give this effort is real frustrating.”

Anderson, who missed Arizona’s practice Friday because of a virus, played only 20 minutes and had nine rebounds. He made three of five from three-point range as the Wildcats made 14 of 32 from beyond the arc and outrebounded the Bears, 48-27.

“Ricky was still really under the weather and had been since early in the week,” Coach Lute Olson said.

California, which beat Arizona State on Thursday night, has not swept the Arizona schools on the road since they joined the Pac-10 in 1978-79.

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No. 17 Stanford 81, Arizona State 76--Casey Jacobsen scored 19 of his 29 points in the second half at Tempe, Ariz., as the Cardinal completed a road sweep through Arizona.

Curtis Borchardt had 19 points and 17 rebounds, leading Stanford to a 49-31 rebounding edge.

The Cardinal (19-8, 12-6) won their second in a row and sixth in eight. Stanford ended a two-game skid Thursday night by defeating No. 14 Arizona, 76-71, and then defeated the Sun Devils (14-13, 7-11) for the ninth consecutive time.

“This is not an easy place to play and get a win,” Stanford Coach Mike Montgomery said. “ASU is real quick and they overplay everything. Our guys kept together. Casey was real good and understood this.”

Chad Prewitt had 14 of his 18 points in the second half for Arizona State (14-13, 7-11), which completed a stretch of playing five ranked teams in a row, the most in school history. The Sun Devils were 1-4 during the stretch, defeating only UCLA on Feb. 16.

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Washington State 102, Centenary 80--J Locklier scored a career-high 40 points and had 11 rebounds as the Cougars (6-21) finished their season with a victory at Pullman, Wash.

Guard Andrew Wisniewski had 40 points for the Gentlemen (14-13).