California Upsets No. 12 Oregon

Amit Tamir told himself not to think about the 39 points he scored against Oregon last season.

He couldn’t help it, though -- things were going so well again.

Tamir scored 25 points and Joe Shipp had 22 points and eight rebounds to lead California to its third straight win, an 88-72 upset over the No. 12 Ducks on Thursday night at Berkeley in a Pacific 10 Conference game.

“Somehow it just happens that I feel pretty comfortable against Oregon,” Tamir said.

Brian Wethers had 16 points for the Golden Bears, who improved to 9-2 overall and 2-0 in the conference. California has won 12 in a row at home.

Luke Jackson had 17 points, eight assists and five rebounds for Oregon (10-3, 1-2).

The Pac-10’s top scoring team had only 38 points with 14:54 left, and the Ducks have been averaging nearly 90 per game. They had been doing just about everything right coming into this game.

“They just got on a roll and we kind of came out and played sloppy right off the bat,” Jackson said. “We didn’t get a lot of rhythm shots. We rushed things.”

At least four players had scored in double figures in all but two of Oregon’s previous 12 games this season. The Ducks had three this game, with Luke Ridnour and Andre Joseph adding 14 and 12 points, respectively.

“They did a great job defensively knocking us out of sync for this game,” Oregon coach Ernie Kent said. “We never had an opportunity to gain momentum.”

No. 2 Arizona 82, Washington State 69 -- Jason Gardner scored 19 points to lead four players in double figures but the Wildcats (10-1, 3-0) struggled much of the night in a Pac-10 game at Tucson before defeating the Cougars (5-7, 0-3) for the 35th consecutive time.

Luke Walton, back after missing last week’s Oregon trip with his fourth sprained ankle of the season, had nine points and eight assists but five turnovers.

Channing Frye scored 11 and grabbed a season-high 13 rebounds for Arizona. Salim Stoudamire had 14 and Rick Anderson 13 points for the Wildcats, who overcame 21 turnovers.

Marcus Moore, the Pac-10’s leading scorer, scored 35 points, including eight of 12 three-pointers for Washington State.

With his fourth career 35-point game, the junior guard topped 1,000 points for his career with 1,005.

Stanford 57, Oregon State 54 -- Matt Lottich scored 18 of his career high 23 points in the last 7:12 as the Cardinal (10-4, 1-1) rallied from a 15-point deficit in the second half to defeat the Beavers (7-5, 0-3) in a Pac-10 game at Palo Alto.

Rob Little, who finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds for his first career double-double, made a pair of free throws with 26 seconds left to put Stanford up for good.

J.S. Nash scored a season-high 13 points to lead Oregon State, which has lost its last 10 at Stanford.

Arizona State 89, Washington 57 -- Tommy Smith had 13 points and a career-high 16 rebounds to lead the Sun Devils (10-4, 2-1) over the Huskies (6-6, 1-2) in a Pac-10 game at Tempe, Ariz.

Curtis Millage had 16 points and Ike Diogu and Jamal Hill scored 14 apiece for Arizona State, which has beaten the Huskies at home six straight times and 15 times in their last 16 visits to Tempe.

Smith also tied his career high with six blocks and had five assists in the Sun Devils’ sixth win in seven games.

No. 25 Michigan State 66, Ohio State 55 -- Alan Anderson scored a career-high 18 points and the Spartans (9-4) made their first 26 free throws to defeat the Buckeyes (7-5) at East Lansing, Mich., in the Big Ten Conference opener for both schools.

Michigan State finished 29 for 30 from the free-throw line.

NOTES

Virginia Military Institute guard Jason Conley, who led the nation in scoring last season as a freshman, has left the team and said he will transfer to Missouri. The 6-foot-5 Conley asked VMI to release him so he could play for a team with a more competitive schedule, he said. Conley averaged 29.3 points per game last season in becoming the first freshman to lead Division I in scoring. This season, the sophomore was leading the Keydets (5-6) with averages of 22.2 points and 7.3 rebounds in 10 games.... Texas El Paso has agreed to pay about $124,500 to former coach Jason Rabedeaux, who resigned 19 days before the start of the season. Rabedeaux stepped down Oct. 21 for personal reasons. He was under contract for the next five seasons at a base salary of $145,000, which would have totaled $725,000.