UCLA basketball: Cal’s hot second half eliminates Bruins
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California’s basketball team seemed to recall that it was the Pacific 10 Conference champion. That seemed to slip the Bears’ mind through a first half that was controlled by UCLA. But it was clear to everyone from the moment California took the court in the second half and cruised to an 85-72 victory in the Pacific Life Pac-10 Tournament semifinals at Staples Center on Friday.
The Bears (23-9) will face the winner of Washington and Stanford on Saturday afternoon.
For a half, UCLA (14-18) appeared ready to mess with the Bears’ manifest destiny in this tournament. The Bruins came out hot and led by as many as 10 in the first half and were up, 39-35, at halftime.
But the Bears started the second half with a 21-5 run for a 54-46 lead. Theo Robertson had 10 points in that run, as California made nine of its first 11 shots.
Robertson (20 points), Jerome Randle (24 points) and Patrick Christopher (16 points) picked apart UCLA’s man-to-man defense throughout the second half. The Bears shot 71% in the second half and 60% for the game.
The Bears pushed their lead to 64-51 on a layup by Christopher, then nursed it through the final eight minutes. The Bears made 13 of 14 free throws in the last five minutes.
Michael Roll seemed determined to extend UCLA’s season in the first half, scoring 16 points to give the Bruins a 39-35 halftime lead.
The Bruins made eight of their first 13 shots, with Roll doing the heavy lifting. He was four for five from the field, scoring 10 of UCLA’s first 20 points.
Roll was fouled sinking a short jumper, with his free throw giving UCLA a 20-10 lead with 12:30 left in the first half. The bruins led, 39-30, with 1:20 left in the first half. The Bears scored the last five points of the half, then continued that run in the second half.
Roll had 27 points to lead UCLA.
-- Chris Foster
twitter.com/cfosterlatimes