By DANIEL DULLUM
Sports Radio Service
Saturday, March 5, 2016

AP photo: The Cal Bears Jordan Matthews (24) goes to the net against ASU’s Gerry Blakes (left) and Savon Goodman (right) Saturday night

TEMPE, Arizona – Since California already had one nail-biter in its Pac-12 road swing through the desert, why not one more?

After losing a close battle to Arizona on Thursday, the Golden Bears roared back on Saturday and clinched the No. 3-seed for the upcoming conference men’s basketball tournament in Las Vegas with a 68-65 victory over Arizona State at Wells Fargo Arena.

No. 25-ranked Cal (22-9 overall, 12-6 Pac-12) also clinched a first-round bye in the Pac-12 tournament and will face either Oregon State or Arizona State (15-16 overall, 5-13 Pac-12) in the second round.

“,” Cal Coach Cuonzo Martin said. “

“You feel good to get a win here, and we can feed off that going in to the Pac-12 Tournament,” Bears guard Tyrone Wallace said. “We’ll get a chance to rest with the bye and I think that can play a huge role. We’ll be well-rested and we’ll work on what we do.

“We’ll get back home, prep on that, and we’ll be ready to go.”

“We always have confidence, and we have huge faith in each other,” Cal forward Jordan Mathews said about the postseason. “Win or lose a game, we get back to the drawing board. Our confidence never wavers.

“There’s a good chance we’ll see Arizona State again. We’ll just watch them play and get ready for that.”

Wallace had a hot hand nearly all night, finishing with a season-high 24 points to go with seven rebounds and five assists. So did Matthews, who drained 4 of 9 3-pointers and finished with 18 points.

“I was trying to be aggressive and get some things going,” Wallace said. “Fortunately, I was able to get some good looks at the rim, made some shots and got rolling. The rim looks a lot bigger when you get on a roll like that.”

Martin said, “When Tyrone makes plays off the dribble and pressures the defense, makes his free throws and his 3-ball, he’s a tough guy to defend.”

The Bears trailed 33-28 at halftime and fell behind 38-28 one minute into the second half, prompting a time out following Obinna Oleka’s 3-pointer for ASU. While the Sun Devils’ shooting cooled off, Cal used its pressure defense to forge a 20-9 run to take its first lead of the second half at 48-47 with 8:42 to play.

Cal used an ASU shot clock violation to finish the run, followed by a dunk (over ASU forward Eric Jacobson) and two free throws by Wallace and a Mathews 3-pointer.

“That (dunk) fired the team up,” Martin said. “We were coming off a tough loss, and I thought our guys were mentally drained. As a coach, you don’t want to say it. You have to try and fight through it.

“We were able to weather that storm in the first half. In the second half, we put in Roger Moute a Bidias, an energy guy, and we got rolling from there.”

Wallace said, “We picked up the energy, and we were able to get some defensive stops during that period, which was key.”.

“Coaches were telling us we needed more energy,” Mathews said. “And we have confidence in all of our guys. We see it in practice all the time. We run drills for everybody.”

A three-point play by Eric Jacobson put ASU ahead at 50-48 at 7:32. The lead went back and forth for the next three minutes. In fact, the score was tied six times, and there were eight lead changes until a Wallace 3-pointer put California ahead to stay 55-52 with 4:21 remaining.

Arizona State pulled within two points three times in the last 2:17, the last time at 62-60 on a Jacobson free throw with :37.8 to play. With Cal in the two-shot bonus, free throws by Wallace, Ivan Rabb and Mathews in the final 26 seconds built a 68-62 lead.

A Gerry Blakes 3-pointer in the final seconds for ASU closed out the scoring.

Jacobson led the Sun Devils with 20 points, followed by 14 from Blakes and 10 each for Oleka and Tra Holder.

Rabb and Jaylen Brown added 11 and 10 points for Cal, which can enjoy a brief break before the Pac-12 Tournament.

“I think the bye helps us from the standpoint of fresh legs,” Martin said. “It comes down to the team that has the most momentum. For us, it’s a matter of doing what we do at the level we’re capable of. Ninety percent of what we’ve done in the last month is about what we do as a team.”

Finally, the Curtain of Distraction was a non-factor, as the Bears made 9 of 10 free throws in the second half. Wallace finished 8 of 8 at the line.

“I didn’t even notice it, to be honest,” Wallace said. “I never once saw anything coming out of the Curtain. Maybe they should move it to the center more or to the side a little more! I wasn’t paying any attention to it; I was locked in, and it was big for me to knock down all of my free throws.”

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