By Morris Phillips

“Top 25” December to serious adversity–even obscurity–in January.  It’s the riches-to-rags journey no college hoops team wants to endure.

But for a handful of unfortunate teams in the Big Five conferences it’s a certainty every season, where schools with the best-orchestrated non-conference schedules also have the biggest in-conference obstacle courses–which are completely out of their control.

With December done and January here, those circumstances could apply to No. 21 Washington, or to a slightly lesser degree, Cal, two teams that happened to be on the hardwood together on Friday for the Pac-12 opener at Haas Pavilion.

Lorenzo Romar’s Huskies opened 11-0, including upsets of ranked Oklahoma and San Diego State, and vaulted into the Top 25 after they were perceived in the pre-season to be headed for a finish in the bottom half of the Pac-12.  Then in their final tune up, UW lost at home to Stony Brook.

Cuonzo Martin’s Bears bumped Syracuse and the highest RPI-ranked team on their schedule to date, Eastern Washington, along with eight other teams ranked 125 and below in a 10-1 start that was deceptively among the school’s best.  Then adversity struck in the form of No. 5 Wisconsin and a shocker to visiting Cal State Bakersfield, ranked 320^th in the last RPI release, giving Cal a “bad loss” for the ages.

So however they termed it, and probably not in these terms, Martin and Romar had their teams on watch for the opener.  Martin was concerned about the Bears ability to score against an athletic defense sparked by shot blocking sophomore transfer Robert Upshaw, and Romar just needed his guys to have short memories and the required intensity for a road game in a hostile environment.

In the opening 20 minutes, it appeared Romar’s wishes were granted as UW shot 53 percent and led by five.  But Cal got all the bounces in the second half to win narrowly, 81-75.  The Bears were led by the trio of Jordan Mathews, Tyrone Wallace and David Kravish who combined for 71 points and carefully heeded their coach’s wishes for attacking play on offense.

“I thought Tyrone, who was 2 of 13 in the first half, was aggressive and stayed in attack mode.  I thought David was engaged offensively from start to finish.  He posted up, played on the perimeter, made plays off the bounce and got to the free throw line.  Those were all the things we worked on with him in practice.  I think Jordan shot the ball and shot it with confidence.  His energy was good in practice the last two or three days.  It carried over well for him into the game,” Martin said.

Needing to be resourceful, given the opponent and the continued absence of injured Jabari Bird, the Bears were, especially after the break.

First, with Christian Behrens struggling with fouls and his productivity, Martin leaned heavily on Roger Moute A Bidas and 7’0” Kingsley Okoroh for the first time.  Okoroh was the recipient of a nifty interior pass from Kravish that he converted to put Cal up 47-39 with 12:06 remaining.  Minutes later, Moute A Bidas slipped down the lane off his dribble for a layup and a 52-46 Cal lead.  Both players were active defensively as well with Okoroh muscling with Upshaw and Moute A Bidas assigned to UW leading scorer Nigel Williams-Goss.

As Martin noted, Kravish had one of his best games of the season with 21 points and 10 rebounds, while taking on the challenge of neutralizing Upshaw.  Wallace struggled with his shot, missing 16 of 20 attempts, but he was near perfect from the line (11-12), as was his ball handling.

And Mathews was as good as he’s ever been, attacking the rim off the dribble or pulling up for jumpers on his way to a team-best 31 points.

“Mathews got going,” Romar said.  “He had an outstanding game and that really helped them shoot 60 percent in a half.  On the road it’s going to be tough to get back from that.  Tonight we didn’t do a very good job at that and they took advantage.”

Williams-Goss led UW with 19 points, nine assists and eight rebounds, but after a quick start was just another guy in a black-and-purple uniform when the Huskies were determined to get point blank shot opportunities but more often than not missed them, shooting just 38 percent after the break.

The Bears finish their seven-game home stand on Sunday when Washington State visits Haas Pavilion at 3:00 p.m.