Flat Bears crushed by Sun Devils

March 7, 6:17 PMCal Bears ExaminerRob Calonge

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For the California Golden Bears (22-9, 11-7 Pac-10), their final road game of the year had little post-season implications.  A loss would drop them a little in the eyes of the NCAA Tournament selection committee and determine the time for their first Pac-10 Tourney game.  A win would raise their ranking for the NCAA Tournament and determine the time for their first Pac-10 Tourney game.

Regardless of their seeding in either tourney, the fact is that they would have to beat the best to be the best in whichever format they were in.

The Bears definitely played like they had nothing to play for Saturday as they were defeated by the Arizona State Sun Devils 83-66 in Tempe, Arizona.

As a team, we played horrible.  The intensity wasn't there. They came out and just dictated what was going to go on out there on the floor, and we've been struggling with that all year.
- Jerome Randle on Cal's play

The Bears led 3-2 until the 18:41 mark of the opening half.  For the next 38:41, they would trail the Sun Devils with their largest deficit being 21 points with 16 minutes left in the game.  Cal would chip away at the Arizona State's lead, getting with nine points (57-66) with a little more than six minutes left, but Sun Devils closed the game out with a 17-9 run.

Randle (24 pts), Jamal Boykin (10 pts), and Theo Robertson (19 pts) each scored in double-digits for Cal, but as a team they shot 42.2% from the field and 26.3% from three-point range.

We weren't ready to play.  There was no sense of urgency.
- Bears head coach Mike Montgomery

It was the wrong game for the Bears to go cold from beyond the arc.  The Sun Devils were devilishly hot from long range, shooting 42.1% and 53.1% from the field.

The Sun Devils had four double-digit scorers on Saturday, led by Jeff Pendergraph's game-high 27 points and crowd pleasing dunks.  The most notable dunk came after the Bears had come back to within nine points and a Derek Glasser pass turned into an alley-oop dunk.

Glasser had a double-double as he scored 12 points and dished 11 assists.  James Harden (20 pts) and Rihards Kuksiks (17 pts) each scored in double-figures for the Sun Devils.

Pendergraph was given a framed No. 4 jersey before his final home game as Arizona State celebrated senior day for the Sun Devils players, playing their final game at home.

The two teams finish the season tied for third place in the Pac-10.  It's unknown at the time of this writing which team will be the third seed in the Pac-10 tournament.

*UPDATE* - The Bears are the third seed in the Pac-10 Tournament and will be facing USC in the first round.

Technicals: None
Officials: Dave Libbey, Deron White, Jim Giron
Attendance: 9,262

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