California Start Best Since 1957

Amit Tamir scored 18 of his 26 points in the second half Thursday night as California defeated Washington, 73-66, in a Pacific 10 Conference game at Seattle.

The victory lifted California (11-2) to a 4-0 conference start for the first time since 1957.

Tamir made six of seven shots from the field in the last 20 minutes as California pulled away from a 29-29 halftime tie to win its fifth in a row.

“It was a tough win on the road,” said Tamir, a 6-foot-11 forward from Jerusalem. “We talked about being 4-0. We’re feeling pretty comfortable with ourselves right now and we just have to build on it.”

Coach Ben Braun isn’t overly excited over California’s conference start.

“It’s great, but there’s a lot of basketball left,” he said. “I’ve always talked about maintaining things. You want to finish strong. It’s important that we play to a certain level.”

Nate Robinson led Washington (6-8, 1-4) with 15 points and Doug Wrenn had 13 points and 10 rebounds, but it couldn’t prevent the Huskies from losing for the fourth time in five games.

Stanford 73, Washington State 68 -- Matt Lottich scored 17 points as the Cardinal won in overtime at Pullman, Wash.

Stanford (12-4, 3-1) trailed, 14-2, after five minutes, 40-26 at the half and 44-33 early in the second half before scoring 18 unanswered points.

Washington State (5-9, 0-5) rallied to take small leads during most of the final six minutes, but the score was tied at 61 at the end of regulation after the Cougars’ Chris Schlatter missed the front end of a one-and-one with 3.1 seconds left.

No. 15 Louisville 87, East Carolina 70 -- Marvin Stone had 23 points and nine rebounds and Reece Gaines had 22 points at Greenville, N.C., as the Cardinals (11-1, 3-0 in Conference USA) won their 10th in a row. Derrick Wiley had 21 points for East Carolina (10-4, 1-2).

OTHER GAMES

Rafael Araujo scored 22 points and had 15 rebounds as Brigham Young (12-4) held on for an 85-77 victory over Nevada Las Vegas (11-3) in a Mountain West Conference opener at Provo, Utah.... Damon Jackson and Renaldo Major each scored 17 points at Dallas to lead Fresno State (12-3, 5-1 in the Western Athletic Conference) to a 75-73 victory over Southern Methodist (6-8, 1-3).