BERKELEY -- It was a game and in a flash it was out of reach for the Cal basketball team.
Washington ran off 16 straight points during a 4-minute, first-half blitz and breezed to a 62-47 victory in front of 6,856 fans at Haas Pavilion on Wednesday night.
Junior Allen Crabbe, the nation's No. 9 scorer entering the game, called the Bears' performance "embarrassing."
The teams were tied at 18-all with barely 7 minutes left in the first half when UW (10-5, 2-0 Pac-12) took charge, suddenly and decisively. The Bears didn't score on eight straight possessions, and by the time they did their conference home opener was spoiled.
Cal got no closer than 11 points in the second half.
"Once we got down we kind of caved and let them have their way with us," Cal coach Mike Montgomery said.
"They just played harder than us," said Crabbe, held to a season-low nine points on 3-for-12 shooting. "I don't have any explanation. We just didn't play hard. There's really nothing else to say."
"We played with no heart, no passion," added sophomore David Kravish, who led the Bears with 14 points.
Senior Robert Thurman, who got his first career start at center, tweeted an apology to fans afterward.
The loss tripped Cal's attempt to build some momentum after a victory four nights earlier at USC. The Bears (9-6, 1-2) are 3-6 since a 6-0 start to the season and badly need a win Saturday against Washington State.
"There's still
plenty of time to turn this around," Kravish said. "It's just about finding that drive, finding that passion."C.J. Wilcox led the Huskies with 19 points, and center Aziz N'Diaye had 12 points and 12 rebounds.
Washington led 34-20 at halftime, and it wasn't merely its 16-0 run that made the difference.
Cal sabotaged itself by shooting 36.4 percent from the field and 3 for 10 from the free throw line in the half.
Most telling was Washington's 30-13 rebounding edge, which included a whopping 15 offensive rebounds. The Huskies turned those into a 10-0 edge in second-chance points in the half.
"We talked about it before the game, we talked about it at halftime, and it was still a problem," Kravish said. "Everybody's got to box out. It's a team effort. We didn't play very well as a team today."
Washington finished with a 48-33 rebounding edge, including 20 offensive rebounds.
Montgomery tried a couple new wrinkles, putting Thurman in the starting lineup. Thurman had two baskets in the opening 3 minutes of the game but didn't score again. If he was on the floor to neutralize the 7-footer N'Diaye, the strategy wasn't a big success.
Montgomery also had freshman Tyrone Wallace start at point guard, allowing Justin Cobbs to focus more on scoring. But Cobbs' protracted shooting slump continued, as he went 4 for 15, and Wallace never got the offense into a flow.
The teams were even at 18-all when the Huskies zoomed away.
Their 16-0 run spanned almost exactly 4 minutes, during which time the Bears shot 0 for 4 from the field, 0 for 3 from the foul line and turned the ball over three times.
After two free throws by freshman Andrew Andrews with 3:04 left, UW led 34-18.
For more on Cal sports, see the Bear Talk blog at ibabuzz.com/beartalk. Follow Jeff Faraudo on Twitter at twitter.com/CalBearsBANG.
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