Men's College Basketball | Arizona, Chase Budinger chill out

BERKELEY, Calif. — First, Patrick Christopher took charge on defense. By the second half he was doing a little bit of everything on both ends for California.

Christopher matched his season high with 23 points, dished out four assists and played strong defense against Arizona star Chase Budinger, and Cal won its sixth straight game with a 69-55 victory over the Wildcats in the Pac-10 opener for both schools Friday night.

Christopher brought the Haas Pavilion crowd to its feet and delivered the final blow to Arizona when he dunked Jerome Randle's long alley-oop pass with 4:15 left.

The Wildcats didn't make a field goal over the final 5 ½ minutes.

"It felt great. We came out with a great level of intensity," Christopher said. "That intensity level sparked our offensive game."

Randle added 14 points, five assists and four rebounds for the Golden Bears (12-2), who under first-year coach Mike Montgomery reached double digits for wins before Jan. 1 for the first time since the 1947-48 season. Cal won six of its seven games in December and began the conference schedule coming off a title in its own Golden Bear Classic last weekend.

The Bears face No. 17 Arizona State on Sunday with a chance to sweep the desert schools in the Bay Area for just the second time in 10 years.

Beating Arizona has been a rare thing in recent years for Cal. This was just the third win by the Bears in 21 meetings since 2000.

"I think this, at least for right now, validates we can play in this league," Montgomery said. "Arizona is a quality team. For us to be able play with them and play that well, for our guys it gives us some confidence that 'Hey, we can play in this league.' "

Nic Wise scored five straight during one second-half stretch on the way to 16 points, and Jordan Hill had 18 points and 11 rebounds for Arizona (9-4), which couldn't overcome another cold night by Budinger. He was held to nine points on 4-of-16 shooting with Christopher draped on him. Many of his shots clanked off the front of the rim — and this performance came after he was 4 of 23 in his previous two games.

"They did exactly what we thought they would do. They were just more efficient," Wise said. "[Chase] didn't shoot well against Kansas either and we beat them up pretty good."

Defense has been a major focus of Montgomery's since the former Stanford and Golden State Warriors coach took over for the fired Ben Braun. He had to be pleased with his team's effort on that end. Budinger shot 3 of 10 in the first half and had a shot blocked by Christopher, too.

Theo Robertson added 13 points with three three-pointers and has made 13 of his last 18 three-point attempts for the Bears, who came in leading the nation in three-point percentage at 50.6 percent.

Other Pac-10 games

Arizona State 90,

at Stanford 60

Jeff Pendergraph scored 21 of his career-high 31 points in the first half and No. 17 Arizona State handed Stanford its first loss.

Pendergraph's strong play inside helped the Sun Devils (12-1, 1-0 league) overcome a scoreless first half by Pac-10 scoring leader James Harden and extend the best start for the school since going 15-1 in 1974-75.

Harden, who had been averaging 23.7 points, missed his first five shots but ended up with 17 points to go with a career-high tying 10 assists.

The Cardinal (10-1, 0-1) was one of six unbeaten teams remaining in Division I, but had a soft nonconference schedule. The Cardinal's loss leaves No. 1 North Carolina, No. 3 Pittsburgh, No. 6 Wake Forest, No. 20 Clemson and Illinois State as the only undefeated teams in the country.

Lawrence Hill scored 14 for Stanford, which made only 2 of 18 three-point attempts.

USC 83, at Oregon 62

Dwight Lewis tied a career high with 26 points and made a career-best 10 field goals and four three-pointers, and the Trojans outscored the Ducks 49-28 in the second half.

Freshman DeMar DeRozan had 14 points and a career-high 12 rebounds and Daniel Hackett added 15 points, nine rebounds and seven assists for the Trojans (9-3, 1-0). Taj Gibson scored 13 and broke Sam Clancy's USC record with his 196th career block.

Tajuan Porter scored 12 for the Ducks (6-7, 0-1).

UCLA 69, at Oregon State 46

Darren Collison and Michael Roll each scored 16 points for No. 12 UCLA.

Drew Gordon added 11 points for the Bruins (11-2, 1-0), the Pac-10's defending regular-season champions who have won seven straight games.

Calvin Haynes had 16 points for Oregon State (5-6, 0-1), which was winless in the conference last season.

The loss snapped a four-game winning streak for the Beavers under first-year coach Craig Robinson, the brother-in-law of President-elect Barack Obama.

Top 10

At No. 8 Texas 78,

Appalachian State 43

Dexter Pittman set career highs with 21 points and 11 rebounds for the Longhorns (11-2). Pittman scored the final seven Texas points of the first half and the first six of the second half during a19-2 run by Texas against the Mountaineers (5-5). Appalachian State was scoreless for nearly seven minutes.

Big Sky

At Northern Arizona 72,

Eastern Washington 49

Josh Wilson scored 15 points and Cameron Jones 14 for the Lumberjacks (4-9, 1-1 Big Sky), who shot 63 percent (15 of 24) from the field in the second half. Benny Valentine scored 13 for Eastern Washington (7-7, 1-1), which shot only .217 (5 of 23) after halftime.

Notes

• Garrison Carr, a senior from Issaquah, scored 22 points and hit five three-pointers as American University defeated Brown 68-53. Carr hit 5 of 7 shots beyond the arc in his 100th game for the Eagles.

• No. 13 Syracuse held off South Florida 59-54 without forward Paul Harris, the team's third-leading scorer. He cut his right ring finger during Tuesday's 24-point rout of Seton Hall.

• Texas Tech coach Pat Knight grew tired of watching his team miss shots that even a child could make. So he found one to illustrate his frustration.

While the Red Raiders were busy botching about 15 layups against Stephen F. Austin on Thursday, Knight scoured the stands and invited a youngster to join the team huddle.

Knight asked the boy whether he could make layups. The boy said he could.

"I was just tired of having 18- or 21-year-olds miss layups that a 12-year-old could hit, so I brought a 12-year-old in to let them know that he could hit layups," Knight said.

The psychological maneuver apparently worked. The Red Raiders pulled away to a 69-55 win.