BERKELEY, Calif. — The act of treading .500 reached a drowning point.
The Arizona men’s basketball team reverted to its early-season form with a 95-71 loss to California on Thursday in Haas Pavilion.
Poised for a primetime rematch of the game that put them into first place in the Pacific 10 Conference, the Wildcats (13-14, 7-8 Pac10) reached a new low and face the sobering reality that they could miss both postseason tournaments.
Losers in five of their last six games, the Wildcats travel to Stanford tomorrow to salvage what’s left of their season.
“”I really feel just being around our team, we’ve gotten to a point where we had a great high, won some games that were close and performed really well … it almost seems like we’re out of gas,”” said UA head coach Sean Miller.
The Wildcats played tentatively from the start, allowing second-chance points and turnovers to hand California a double-digit lead just minutes into the game. The Golden Bears grabbed nine offensive boards for eight points and scored 20 points from turnovers.
Picked in the preseason to be a top-10 team nationally, California proved that it deserved to fight for a Pac-10 title tomorrow against ASU.
That’s exactly where Arizona wanted to be in its last meeting.
“”I think early on we felt (like) two teams at different places,”” Miller said. “”We came out very tentative and played like a team with no confidence.””
Cal senior point guard Jerome Randle single-handedly buried Arizona’s short-lived 14-2 run — which cut the deficit to 7 — with NBA-range, off-balance shots. The senior couldn’t miss in the second half, at one point hitting a 30-foot 3-pointer for his third straight shot from beyond the arc.
Randle scored 17 points in less than five minutes and scored the majority of Cal’s 14-2 run on his own.
He finished with a game-high 24 points.
“”It’s tough when you came out expecting to play better,”” said UA point guard Nic Wise. “”We knew they wanted payback, and they got it. Tonight, I think we took a step back.
“”It’s pretty bad,”” he added.
After trailing by as many as 24 points, the Wildcats quietly regained traction by ending the first half on a 14-2 run.
Brendon Lavender was the team-high scorer at the end of the first half with 11 points.
Arizona’s lackluster perimeter defense allowed 10 of Cal’s 21 3-pointers.
At one point, Cal guard Patrick Christopher’s back-to-back 3s brought the score to 41-17. He finished with 14 points.
A 3-pointer by forward Theo Robertson gave the Bears a 29-11 lead and forced Miller to burn a timeout with 10:13 remaining in the first half. Robertson finished with 18.
“”They came out hot. There was nothing we could really do about it,”” said UA guard Momo Jones.
Added UA forward Derrick Williams, who finished with 17 points: “”We played catch-up the whole game.””
Parrom missed in road trip
UA forward Kevin Parrom missed the weekend Bay Area trip due to a foot injury — and it showed on defense.
Parrom missed six weeks earlier this season with a stress fracture in the same left foot.
“”We missed Kevin Parrom,”” Miller said. “”It’s obviously our defense (struggling) without him. It’s one of those situations where we’re not going to know until three or four days go by to gauge his pain.””
While the pain is not in the same exact location as the stress fracture, Parrom will be held out of practice for the rest of the season, Miller said.
His status for next Thursday’s game against UCLA will be a game-time decision.
“”We don’t have a lot (of) time left,”” Miller said.
Parrom’s absence was not due to disciplinary actions. He got into an altercation with ASU’s Derek Glasser on Sunday, but Miller said the matter would be dealt with privately.
“”He’s a big loss. He’s a big defensive player,”” Wise said.
And 1
The Bears wore all-silver uniforms to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Air Jordan brand. Cal is the only Pac-10 school sponsored by Air Jordan. All other teams in the Pac-10 are sponsored by Nike aside from UCLA, who is sponsored by Adidas.
