By Morris Phillips

The Cal Bears can’t get any lower than this.

In a sleepy, sparsely populated Beasley Coliseum, the Bears were supposed to be purposely competitive with Washington State, the one other Pac-12 team that hadn’t done much thus far this season, similar to Cal.

But instead of purposely competitive, the Bears were surprisingly quiet. And the two Cougars that Cal could least afford to allow to have big games, did.

Robert Franks returned to the WSU lineup after missing four games with a hip issue, and seamlessly fit back in, scoring 24 points in limited minutes off the bench. Franks scored a career-best 34 points against Cal in last year’s meeting in Pullman, including a school-record 10 made threes.

Franks had consecutive baskets in WSU’s run to open the second half that stretched the Cougars’ lead from nine at the break, to double digits, then to as many as 29 in the game’s waining moments.

C.J. Elleby, son of Bill Elleby, the former Cal player from 1988 to 1992, gave the Cougs a big assist as well. The highly regarded freshman started and scored 11 points, including two made threes.

The whole stew added up to 54 percent shooting for Washington State as they became the tenth Cal opponent to shoot 51 percent or better from the floor this season.

Meanwhile, the Bears limped along with 39 percent shooting and committed 14 turnovers. Neither number was as telling as Cal’s season-low six assists, as 10 of the 13 Bears to see action failed to record one.

Washington State broke a six-game losing streak with the win, and won for the first time in conference play.

The Bears (5-12, 0-5) are still looking for that first conference win, and they’ve dropped 12 consecutive Pac-12 contests dating back to last year.

The Bears were led by Justice Sueing with 15 points. Matt Bradley chipped in with 14, but missed eight of his 13 shots. The Bears were surprisingly poor from the foul line, making just nine of 16.

The Bears travel to Seattle for Saturday’s meeting with the first-place Huskies. Washington is currently the only conference team projected to make the NCAA tournament and that’s only as a ten-seed. Game time set for 2:00 pm PST.