By Morris Phillips

This time, what Cal was doing was working… at least for a little while.

Then the prevailing reality sprung the surface, and Cal was cooked by top-seeded Arizona once again, this time in the Pac-12 tournament quarterfinals on Thursday afternoon.

Led by Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Stanley Johnson, Arizona raced past Cal for the third time this season, 73-51.  The Wildcats advance to face fourth-seeded UCLA in the tournament semis on Friday, and the Bears return to Berkeley unsure if they will get a phone call from the NIT or another post-season tournament.

“On the offensive end, we did a good job of being patient, finding the next guy, and we were able to get some shots down,” Tyrone Wallace said of the Bears solid first half effort which had them down just 33-27 at the break.  “The second half, not as many shots went down.  They played good.”

“They played well in the first half and we kind of stagnated.  Credit Cal for that, but we made the plays when we needed to,” Arizona point guard T.J. McConnell said.

In each of the regular season matchups, Cal was overwhelmed by Arizona, especially in attempting to find quality scoring opportunities against the bigger, broader Wildcats.  But this time, at least in the opening half, the Bears pushed back.

Cal’s shooting was any better—33 percent in the opening half, 34 percent for the game—but early on, the Bears held their own on the glass, limited Arizona’s second shot opportunities and short-circuited any big runs.  Arizona coach Sean Miller felt the Bears’ intensity might have surprised his team early on.

“There’s always a feeling-out process in March when you get into these tournaments because teams are desperate,” Miller said.  “Individual players are kind of playing with house money or playing with a lot at stake, depending on which team you’re on.”

Cal’s “house money” man, senior David Kravish had his way with Washington State in the tournament opener, scoring a career-best 25 points.  But against Arizona, Cal’s big man had to battle 7’1” Kaleb Tarczewski and 6’10” Brandon Ashley.  Kravish grabbed 12 rebounds, but couldn’t get going offensively, scoring just six points while missing 10 of his 13 shots.

Meanwhile Arizona’s “high stakes” guy undoubtedly was Hollis-Jefferson, a defensive wizard able to guard Cal’s leading scorer Tyrone Wallace as well as their other threats, Jordan Mathews and Jabari Bird.  When Arizona made its push, scoring 14 of the first 20 points after halftime, Hollis-Jefferson delivered the spirit-raising, offensive plays as well.

Hollis-Jefferson had a dunk and a layup in transition during Arizona’s 9-0 run that put them up 46-32 with 15:50 remaining.

Freshman Stanley Johnson led the Wildcats with 19 points and Ashley added 15 points and seven rebounds as Arizona advanced to the tournament semis for the fifth straight year.

Wallace led Cal with 19 points, but needed 20 shots to reach that total.  Mathews was bottled up by Hollis-Jefferson, T. J. McConnell and others, finishing with three points on 1 of 7 shooting.

Cal (18-15) hadn’t scored as few as 51 points in a game since January 24 when Arizona came to Berkeley and held the Bears to 50 in a 23-point rout.  The Bears dropped six of their final eight games following a five-game win streak.

Kravish broke the school record for games participated in with his 135^th on Wednesday and now has 136 under his belt.  Wallace moved into 25^th place on the school’s all-time scoring list with 1,196 points.