Cal pulled off its first win over a top-10 team in five years on Saturday, beating No. 10 Oregon 58-54 by dominating the closing minutes in front of the Bears' largest home crowd of the season.
The key to the victory was obvious: turnovers. After turning the ball over 20 times in a lopsided loss to Stanford on Wednesday that ended their nine-game winning streak, the Ducks committed 22 turnovers against the Bears.
The Bears (13-8, 5-4) overcame an eight-point deficit with less than seven minutes left, and held the Ducks (18-4, 7-2) without a point for the final four minutes to finish off their first win over a top-10 team since beating No. 9 Washington State in January 2008.
The Cal students celebrated by storming the court and jumping around with the players at midcourt.
"I've been here for three years and I've never seen anything like that," Cal center Richard Solomon said. "It felt good."
Solomon had 13 points and 12 rebounds in one of the best games of his career, and he did it in front of his mother, Sheryl, who attended a Cal game for one of the few times.
"She had a smile on her face," Solomon said.
The Ducks are not smiling after losing their second straight. They will drop into tie for first place if either Arizona or Arizona State wins its game Saturday evening.
The Ducks shot 47.6 percent from the floor compared with just 35.6 percent for the Bears. But the 22 turnovers were killers.
"[The loss] wasn't frustrating, but it was disappointing," said Oregon center Tony Woods, who finished with 14 points and eight rebounds. "Twenty-two turnovers on the road - that's a formula for a loss. It feels like with DA [Dominic Artis] out, we have to have other guys step up."
Artis, a freshman who started the Ducks' first 19 games at point guard, missed his third straight game with a foot injury, and it's unclear when he will return.
Johnathan Loyd, who has been starting in place of Artis, had eight points and seven assists, but he also had six turnovers. He was also hampered by a wrist injury he sustained late in the first half, and he played the second half with it taped.
Cal's defense and inside dominance enabled the Bears to win despite getting just 13 points from Allen Crabbe, who entered the game leading the conference in scoring at 19.8 a game. Justin Cobbs, who came in averaging 14.7 points, scored just eight points Saturday, but six of them came in the final three minutes, which Cal dominated.
E.J. Singler, the Ducks' top scorer in conference play and the team leader, finished with seven points and did not score in the second half.
Singler missed a three-pointer with eight seconds left and the Bears leading by two. Woods got an offensive rebound on the play, but his shot was blocked by David Kravish, who forced a jump ball, giving the ball to Cal.
Cobbs hit two free throws with 3.9 seconds left to seal the upset.
"We stressed two things at practice yesterday." Cal coach Mike Montgomery said. "We stressed their transition game, and second-chance points. They had three fast-break points and six second-chance points, and that was absolutely the key."
Cal had 12 offensive rebounds compared with just four for Oregon, which entered the game virtually tied for the Pac-12 lead in rebounding margin.
After trailing by three at halftime, Cal took a 42-39 lead with 11:28 left when Tyrone Wallace (12 points) hit a three-pointer. Oregon then reeled off 11 straight points to surge ahead 50-42 at the 6:33 mark and seemed to be in control of the game.
Cal tied the game at 54-54 with 2:31 left on a Crabbe fastbreak basket facilitated by the Ducks' 21st turnover of the game. The Bears went ahead 56-54 on Cobbs' 17-foot shot at the 1:34 mark, and that was the final field goal of the game.
Notes: Cal's crowd of 9,457 was its largest home crowd of the season . . . Cal has beaten Oregon 10 times in a row. . . Cal won for the second straight time after being behind at halftime. It had been 0-11 when trailing at halftime heading into this week. But the Bears beat Oregon State on Thursday after trailing by eight at halftime, and they were behind by three at intermission on Saturday. . . This is the 37th consecutive season Oregon has failed to sweep a Pac-12 road trip to the Bay Area.
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