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Wildacts fall to Golden Bears: Lose fourth straight

F On a night when University of Arizona coaching icon Lute Olson was honored in an emotional halftime tribute, visiting California shot the lights out on the McKale Center party.

Junior point guard Jerome Randle made 8 of 11 three-pointers, including 6 of 7 in the second half, to lead the Golden Bears to an 83-77 victory over the Wildcats, who are teetering on the NCAA Tournament bubble after losing their fourth straight.

“We didn’t get after it on the defensive end,” said Arizona junior swingman Chase Budinger, who led the Wildcats (18-12 overall, 8-9 Pac-10) with 28 points. “In games like this, towards the middle of the second half, that’s when we get after it. We didn’t get after it in the second half.”

Following the halftime ceremony for Olson, who retired on Oct. 23 for health reasons after guiding Arizona to four trips to the Final Four (including the 1997 national championship) during his unforgettable 24-season tenure in Tucson, the Wildcats could not stop the sharp-shooting Randle and his California teammates from taking over the game.

“Defensively we didn’t do a good enough job of getting out on their shooters,” said Arizona interim head coach Russ Pennell. “I wish I could tell you why, because we had that scouted and our guys knew what they were capable of and their percentages showed what they were capable of. But we just didn’t make enough plays on the defensive end of the floor.”

The Golden Bears (22-8, 11-6) made 16 of 30 three-pointers. After trailing 38-34 at the intermission, they scored 49 points in the second half and went ahead to stay at 65-62 on a three-pointer by Randle with 5:59 remaining. Randle, who finished with a game-high 31 points, knocked down another triple to extend Cal’s advantage to 68-63 with 3:26 left.

After Budinger converted a three-point play on an acrobatic runner in the lane and the ensuing free throw to pull Arizona back to within 68-66 with 2:30 remaining, Randle struck again, nailing a long three-pointer as the shot clock expired with 1:55 left.

The Golden Bears went ahead by eight at 74-66 on a three by Patrick Christopher with 1:13 on the clock. Although the Wildcats were able to close the gap to three points on three occasions during the final 26.4 seconds, the Bears closed out the game at the foul line, making 9 of 12 free throws in the last minute.

“To say I’m disappointed would be an understatement,” Pennell said afterward. “I felt like we played hard; I didn’t think we particularly played smart at times. But our effort was really good. That was a good basketball team that beat us, too, in fact an NCAA Tournament team. And they’ve been doing that all year.”

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The Golden Bears got 24 points from Theo Robertson and 12 from Christopher.

Jordan Hill finished with 24 points and 14 rebounds for Arizona, while Jamelle Horne added 13 points and nine rebounds. Nic Wise scored 10 points for the Wildcats before fouling out with 1:41 remaining.

The loss leaves Arizona in a must-win situation in Saturday’s regular-season finale at McKale Center against Stanford (17-11, 6-11 following a 74-64 upset over Arizona State in Tempe on Thursday night).

The Wildcats’ recent seven-game winning streak, which culminated on Feb. 14 with an 84-72 victory over UCLA, has been followed by a losing skid which began with a 70-68 defeat at Arizona State on Feb. 22 and continued with setbacks last weekend at Washington State and Washington. The loss to California on Thursday was the Wildcats’ fourth in a row.

“We’ve got to try to get things turned around real quick, because we’ve got one Saturday that’s a very important game,” Pennell said.

Asked to assess his team’s NCAA Tournament chances, Pennell said, “You know, I still think they’re there. I think the window is closing, but if you looked around America last night (Wednesday), it seemed like everybody that was on the bubble lost. So someone’s got to make it. I think that we’ve got to try to take care of one ball-game at a time, and we’ve got one Saturday and then we’ve got to go over to L.A. (for next week’s Pac-10 Tournament) and see what happens.”

Pennell, who was hired by Olson as an assistant prior to this season and was named Arizona’s interim head coach the day after Olson retired, walked across the court just prior to Thursday’s tip-off to greet his former boss, who was seated along the sideline.

“I went over before the game and just told the coach thank you for bringing me here and giving me an opportunity to coach at Arizona,” Pennell said. “I kidded him and said if he wanted to, he could come over and help us. I’m glad that he got honored tonight. I think it’s obvious what he’s done for this university and college basketball is really unprecedented, in my opinion, and I think history will bear that out.”

The halftime ceremony honoring Olson was attended by many of his former UA players, including Steve Kerr, the point guard on the 1988 Final Four team who is now general manager of the Phoenix Suns.

By Tom Kessler
DFN Sports Staff Writer