By Morris Phillips

BERKELEY, CA–Needing a Pac-12 victory in the worst way, the Bears didn’t squander the opportunity.

In a matchup of the conference’s bottom dwellers, the Bears looked like contenders in shooting their way past Washington, 84-78 at Haas Pavilion.

The Bears finished the game on a 9-3 run after it was tied at 75 a piece with 2:18 remaining. Throughout the Bears relied on their offense, shooting 55 percent from the floor while burying 11 3-pointers.

“Offensively we got the ball in the paint when we needed to in the first half,” coach Mark Fox said. “We made a bunch of threes in the second, and it ends up being a real good win.”

“We couldn’t get stops,” Huskies coach Mike Hopkins said. “We didn’t execute down the stretch what we wanted to do.”

The Huskies were picked ninth in the Pac-12 preseason poll, the Bears tenth. But UW’s top returner Nahziah Carter was suspended due to sexual impropriety allegations and subsequently withdrew from school. Cal has dealt with injuries, most significantly with leading scorer Matt Bradley missing his fourth game on Saturday. Both teams came in 0-5 in conference play with seven of the 10 combined losses by double digits.

With the speculation that one of the two teams could go winless in conference growing, both teams played with renewed vigor. But Cal’s offense lasted longer while the Huskies suffered too many lapses defensively.

“The three-point shot for certain players we allowed to happen,” Hopkins said. “And that’s the result you get when you don’t execute what you’re supposed to execute.”

While Andre Kelly was flawless in the paint, leading Cal with 22 points, the graduate connection of Ryan Betley and Makale Foreman took advantage from distance with eight combined made threes.

With that trio cooking from the opening tip, the Bears built an eight-point halftime lead that they expanded to 13 (45-32) with 18:01 remaining. While the Huskies may have little continuity and diminished confidence at this point, they dug deep and battled Cal for the remainder of the second half only to come up short.

Erik Stevenson scored 15 of his team-high 27 after the break with a huge assist from Jamal Bey, who had 18 with 11 of those after halftime. With those two leading the way, the Huskies–with some of the worst shooting numbers among any of the Power 5 schools–belied their statistics by shooting 52 percent from the floor.

But in the final 2:18 Cal took control. Joel Brown hit a 3-pointer to break the 75-75 tie, then on the next possession Brown cruised in for a layup. Between the two buckets by Brown, Betley came up with a huge blocked shot in the paint on UW’s Quade Green with Brown then grabbing the rebound. Leading 80-75, the Bears closed the door.

On tap next the Bears’ ski trip has them at Colorado on Wednesday and Utah on Saturday.