Oregon 84, Arizona 74
Oregon (10-4, 1-1 Pac-10) led by 19 in the first half, and the No. 21 Wildcats (10-4, 1-1 Pac-10) never got closer than five in the second.
It was a stark contrast from Oregon's sluggish, turnover-marred 62-54 loss at Arizona State on Thursday night.
"Hopefully, this is the win that can kick-start us into playing how we are accustomed to playing," Kent said. "We looked like the Oregon of old today."
Chase Budinger scored 30 points, two shy of his career best, for the Wildcats, who were without leading scorer and point guard Jerryd Bayless for the third straight game because of a sprained right knee.
UCLA 70, Cal 58
"Kevin Love played like a man today," Bruins coach Ben Howland said. "Nineteen and 14."
And Love had plenty of help as UCLA again showed its depth.
Russell Westbrook added 11 points and seven rebounds, Darren Collison had 14 points and five assists and Josh Shipp scored 13 for the Bruins (14-1, 2-0), who won their seventh straight. The streak includes a victory at Stanford (No. 20 ESPN/USA Today, No. 24 AP) on Thursday night.
Stanford 52, USC 46
"It wasn't pretty but we found a way," Johnson said after the Cardinal (No. 20 ESPN/USA Today, No. 24 AP) beat Southern California 52-46.
"I guess that's all that matters. I thought our guys were really, really resilient. It was a very physical game from start to finish."
Fred Washington helped shut down heralded USC freshman O.J. Mayo, and the Cardinal (12-2, 1-1 Pac-10) avoided losing consecutive home games despite having their worst shooting game in more than eight years.
Stanford hadn't shot this poorly since making 26 percent of its shots in a 62-49 win over UC Santa Barbara on Nov. 20, 1999.
Washington 56, Washington 52
Nevertheless, the Huskies couldn't outdo the original, especially in the final minutes.
Aron Baynes scored 16 points, Kyle Weaver scored 11 of his 13 in the second half, and the No. 4 Cougars again used their defense to rally past Washington 56-52 on Saturday night in the Pac-10 opener for both teams.
"My hat goes off to Washington and how hard they played," Bennett said.
Trailing 48-45, Washington State (13-0) scored 11 of the final 15 points, flustering the Huskies into challenged shots and taking advantage of the few open opportunities they found.
In the process, the Cougars extended their win streak over the Huskies (9-5) to six, the longest streak since winning six straight in 1941-42. And much like those games 66 years ago, this one was a physical, grind-it-out affair, with bodies flying all over the floor and every possession precious -- just the way the Cougars like it.
Arizona State 72, Oregon State 53
Jeff Pendergraph was ASU's second leading scorer with 18 points, four more points than OSU's top scorer. He only missed one shot... he was 6 of 7 from the field and 6 of 6 from the line. He led the team with nine rebounds, and had four blocks.
Everyone else scored under ten points for Arizona State, who moved to 12-2 with the win. The restoration of the basketball program brought over 7,000 to Wells Fargo Arena on Saturday afternoon, and they're even comparing the Sun Devils resurgence to that of the Portland Trail Blazers. After all, Trail Blazers' coach Nate McMillian's son, Jamelle McMillian, plays for Arizona State.
For Oregon State, Josh Tarver led with 14 points. Omari Johnson had 11, and Lathen Wallace and Calvin Haynes both scored 10.
This week, the Bay Area schools travel to play the Oregon schools, the Washington schools travel to LA, and the Arizona and Arizona State will play each other on Wednesday.
--JB--