Late shot lifts Cal past Huskies

There was no keeping this guy from the basket at Edmundson Pavilion, take your pick:

1) Artem Wallace

2) Ryan Anderson

3) Patrick Christopher

Washington's Wallace, usually the lowest-scoring starter in the Pac-10, wasn't a wrong answer, supplying a career-best 17 points.

California's Anderson, the league's leading scorer much of the season and shoveling in 33 more against the Huskies, wasn't wrong, either.

Yet if you went with the Golden Bears' Christopher, admittedly a second option to Anderson but a very confident and determined player when called upon, it was the right call and you won Saturday's game against the UW.

With Anderson blanketed, Christopher sent an off-balance 3-pointer knifing through with 27 seconds remaining to undo a 72-72 tie, ruin a game Huskies comeback and propel Cal to a 79-75 victory.

"I just saw it kind of clear out, made my move and made the shot," recounted the 6-foot-5 sophomore forward from Los Angeles, later adding two free throws and finishing with 20 points.

Thus ended a strange game, if not totally disheartening week, for Washington (12-10 overall, 3-6 Pac-10), which was swept in a league series at home for just the third time in 22 with Lorenzo Romar as coach.

The Huskies finished the first half of the league schedule firmly planted in ninth place, one spot worse than projected, and reeling from a three-game losing streak. With USC and UCLA visiting next, they face the very real possibility of going into a serious tailspin.

"It's more likely now for people to start falling off," UW forward Jon Brockman said. "We've got to make sure that doesn't happen."

Said Romar, "The message is we're in it for the long haul."

While Wallace's offensive showing was a huge surprise, with the Russian-born player breaking into double digits for just the second time in 67 collegiate outings and scoring five more than his previous best effort, the rest of his UW teammates went in the tank for long stretches.

They couldn't hit from the foul line or the 3-point line. They shot 44.4 percent from the first one, 25.9 percent from the other.

They never should have been in this game at all -- draining a horrendous 1 of 15 3-point attempts in the opening half -- but there they were leading 33-28 at the half.

They even appeared to have reached the point of no return after falling down by nine points coming down the stretch, the last time at 70-61, yet there they were tying the Golden Bears at 72 on a pair of Venoy Overton free throws with 1:20 on the clock.

There were just 37.8 seconds remaining after Anderson launched and missed a 3-pointer, only to grab the rebound himself.

A timeout was called. A play was plotted for Anderson, with the 6-10 sophomore forward good on 11 of 19 shots. Christopher got the call instead, going up strong and hitting one in front of the Cal bench.

"The play was designed to go another way," Christopher said. "Hey, I'm giving away our plays."

That was a small sacrifice to make compared to what the Huskies did. Even with their early long-range shooting woes, they might have won this one had they been able to make just a couple of free throws anywhere along the way. Cal dutifully handled this chore, hitting 14 of 16. The UW suffered through an agonizing 8-for-18 outing, percentage-wise their second worst outing.

"Free throws were a big issue," said Cal's Anderson, who hit all seven of his. "We're really a good free-throw team."

Wallace usually has trouble with those kinds of shots. OK, he's uncomfortable with most offensive offerings, choosing to pass the ball rather than launch it, preferring defense and rebounding to point-making. He entered the game averaging 2.3 points per game, scoring two points or fewer in 12 of his 19 outings.

Against Cal, he practically turned into Rasheed Wallace, if not Ben Wallace. He came up with a double-double performance, supplying a team-high 10 rebounds as well. But his points were what caught everyone's attention. The UW player had seven of them inside the final three minutes of the opening half, and nine by the break.

With his team holding a 26-24 lead, Wallace took one dribble and spun hard around a defender and dropped in a lay-in. Usually, that's it from him. However, the big guy from Toledo was feeling it.

The next time down the floor, Wallace grabbed one of Ryan Appleby's many misses from 3-point range, scored and was fouled by the Golden Bears' Anderson. The Russian-born player, a 23-percent free throw shooter standing at the line after already having missed two attempts in this game, shocked everyone by swishing the shot.

Wallace was not finished with the scoreboard. The Huskies put the ball in the hands of 7-footer Joe Wolfinger for supposedly the last shot of the half, but his 3-pointer missed. Wallace was in position to grab it and convert one more time, giving his team that 33-28 advantage with four seconds on the clock.

"I didn't come out there trying to score my career high," he said. "I just got in the flow of the game."

Wallace opened the second half with a lay-in, dunked one in off a feed from Quincy Pondexter and followed up another Appleby miss, the latter giving the Huskies a 51-46 lead. His final bucket came midway through the half when took a hard dribble, a long step and coaxed in a left-handed shot, cutting a Cal lead to 59-56.

"He went out there with the mindset that, 'I'm going to bang,' and that's what he did," Romar said.

Without Wallace's career showing, the Huskies would have been in danger of getting blown out. Brockman finished with 15 points and just four rebounds while struggling with a groin injury and game-long foul trouble. Appleby topped the Huskies with 19 points, including eight inside the final three and half minutes to make it a game again, but he had dreadful shooting night overall, hitting just 7 of 20 casts.

"We've got to be able to find ways to score," Romar said.

The free throw line is calling these Huskies, but they're not answering.

CALIFORNIA 79, WASHINGTON 75

		FG	FT	Reb
CALIFORNIA	Min	M-A	M-A	O-T	A	PF	PTS
Boykin	22	1-5	0-0	1-6	1	3	2
Vierneisel	26	1-4	2-2	0-4	0	3	4
Christopher	38	8-15	3-5	3-5	0	2	20
Anderson	40	11-19	7-7	6-17	0	2	33
Randle	35	7-12	0-0	0-2	4	5	16
Robinson	5	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	1	0
Knezevic	14	0-1	0-0	0-0	0	1	0
Wilkes	7	0-0	0-0	0-4	2	2	0
Kamp	13	1-2	2-2	1-1	2	4	4
Totals	200	29-58	14-16	12-41	9	23	79

Percentages: FG .500, FT .875.

3-Point Goals: 7-17, .412 (Anderson 4-7, Randle 2-3, Christopher 1-3, Knezevic 0-1, Vierneisel 0-3).

Team Rebounds: 2.

Blocked Shots: 2 (Kamp, Anderson).

Turnovers: 15 (Randle 5, Christopher 4, Kamp 2, Anderson 2, Knezevic, Boykin).

Steals: 6 (Randle 3, Christopher, Boykin, Knezevic).

Technical Fouls: None.

		FG	FT	Reb
WASHINGTON	Min	M-A	M-A	O-T	A	PF	PTS
Wallace	33	8-11	1-5	7-10	1	2	17
Brockman	24	7-11	1-4	2-4	2	4	15
Overton	26	1-3	2-2	0-3	5	0	4
Morris	14	1-6	0-0	2-3	2	2	2
Appleby	36	7-20	0-0	0-1	1	1	19
Smith	15	1-3	3-3	0-1	0	1	5
Dentmon	16	2-5	0-0	0-2	0	0	5
Bryan-Amaning	6	0-2	0-2	1-1	1	1	0
Holiday	6	0-0	0-0	0-1	0	3	0
Pondexter	21	3-7	1-2	2-3	2	4	8
Wolfinger	3	0-1	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
Totals	200	30-69	8-18	17-34	14	18	75

Percentages: FG .435, FT .444.

3-Point Goals: 7-27, .259 (Appleby 5-15, Pondexter 1-2, Dentmon 1-3, Overton 0-1, Wolfinger 0-1, Smith 0-2, Morris 0-3).

Team Rebounds: 5.

Blocked Shots: 2 (Bryan-Amaning, Dentmon).

Turnovers: 9 (Pondexter 4, Appleby 2, Wallace, Morris, Smith).

Steals: 4 (Brockman, Overton, Bryan-Amaning, Dentmon).

Technical Fouls: None.

California	28	51	--	79
Washington	33	42	--	75

A--9,404.

Officials--Dick Cartmell, Bruce Hicks, Tom Wood.