By Morris Phillips

Desperately needing a win, and willing to go just about anywhere to get it, the California Golden Bears found themselves in remote Pullman, Washington on Wednesday night fighting tooth and nail with a stubborn bunch of Cougars.

And in such a contentious battle, it wasn’t a surprise that the Bears turned to Justin Cobbs to pull it out.

Cobbs scored all 22 of his point after halftime, including seven in overtime to propel the Bears past Washington State, 80-76.  The narrow win allowed Cal to stay in a three-way tie for third place in the Pac-12, and averted a damaging loss to the conference’s 11^th place team with only two Pac-12 victories to date.

With Cal looking to step above a number of similarly-situated teams regionally and nationally in regards to making the NCAA tournament, a win against WSU was a necessity.  But the Cougars DaVonte Lacy single handedly kept the possibility of a major upset alive with a career-best 39 points, 26 of those after halftime.

Both teams landed blows in the first half that saw WSU led by nine, then trail by nine after Cal finished the first 20 minutes on a 14-2 run to seemingly take control.

But with Lacy bombing away from outside—he would finish with eight made 3-pointers—and forward D.J. Shelton working the interior, WSU clawed their way back in, drawing even at 56 with nine minutes remaining.  Shelton would finish with 18 points and a career-high 19 rebounds.

The Bears came in losers of four of their previous five games and looking for answers—especially at the offensive end where the Bears couldn’t shoot straight in losing to Stanford a week ago.  But Cobbs fell back to his familiar role as closer, getting into the lane for point blank looks or getting to the foul line where the senior guard converted nine of 11 attempts.

The Bears got a big lift from David Kravish and Richard Solomon who combined for 29 points on 12 of 19 shooting.  Ricky Kreklow returned to the starting lineup, playing 23 minutes and contributing 8 points and 3 rebounds.

Washington State lost a third straight and dropped both meetings with Cal for the first time since 2010.

Cal next faces Washington after another day of rigorous winter travel to Seattle.  The Bears and Huskies face off Saturday at noon in Alaska Airlines Arena.