By Morris Phillips

After a Sunday evening meeting of the hapless and the hopeless, the Cal Bears departed with smiles on their faces, not to mention an opportunity to make some school history in the coming weeks.

The Bears made it five straight, and back-to-back road wins, by besting Washington State in Pullman, 80-62. The Bears led from beginning to end, belying their season struggles on the road in an emphatic manner.

Jabari Bird’s 3-pointer less than four minutes in gave the Bears their first double-digit lead at 12-2. The Bears led by nine at halftime, and by as many as 23 in the second half.

Cal moved into fourth place in the Pac-12 with the win, and USC’s loss to Utah earlier in the day. The Bears are just a game behind conference co-leaders Oregon and Arizona with four regular season remaining.

The Bears entered the weekend losers of all five of their Pac-12 road games, but came up with a pair of crucial wins over the Washington schools to re-enter the race for the conference regular season crown. Cal also solidified its hold on an NCAA tournament birth as the Pac-12’s top six schools are likely to qualify.

Tyrone Wallace came up with 15 of his team-best 17 points in a short, second half burst in which he hit three 3-pointers. Cal’s senior leader hadn’t come up with a breakout game in his three games back since being felled by a broken finger. But his big performance Sunday caught the eye of Coach Cuonzo Martin.

“He’s a talented basketball player, so I’m not surprised,” Martin said. “When his 3-ball his falling, it could be a long night for you.”

Cal (19-8, 9-5) also enjoyed double figure scoring from Ivan Rabb (15 points) and Bird (13).  Rabb was a perfect 5 for 5 from the field.  Que Johnson led WSU with 17 points.

While the Bears overcame their road woes, the Cougars (9-18, 1-14) overcame very little. WSU’s loss was their 13^th in a row, and they clinched at least a tie for last place in the conference with three games remaining, all of them away from Pullman.

The Bears return to Berkeley to face UCLA on Thursday in their final pursuit of a perfect record at Haas Pavilion this season. The Bears are currently 16-0 at home.