Feb. 5, 2000

Box Score

By JOHN NADEL
AP Sports Writer

LOS ANGELES - Freshman Shantay Legans scored 10 of his 15 points in the second half, and Dennis Gates added a career-high 13 as California beat the reeling UCLA Bruins 73-70 Saturday.

The loss was the third straight for the Bruins (12-8, 3-6 Pac-10), who are in jeopardy of missing their first NCAA tournament in 12 years.

UCLA was swept by Stanford and Cal for the first time in Los Angeles since the 1989-90 season.

Cal's Brian Wethers scored his only two points of the game on free throws with 7.5 seconds left to complete the scoring.

A couple seconds earlier, Solomon Hughes blocked Jerome Moiso's 10-foot hook shot in the lane that could have put the Bruins ahead.

UCLA's Earl Watson was then called for traveling as he tried to get in position for a 3-point shot with two seconds left. After Wethers missed a free throw, Ryan Bailey's desperation 3-pointer from halfcourt didn't come close.

Sean Lampley and Joe Shipp added 11 points each for the Bears (13-8, 4-5), who swept USC and UCLA in Los Angeles for the first time in five years. Nick Vander Laan had seven points and 10 rebounds.

Freshman Jason Kapono led UCLA with 19 points, all but four in the second half. Moiso had 16 points, 10 rebounds, four steals and three blocked shots, and Earl Watson added 10 points and six assists for the Bruins.

Cal went ahead for good on Shipp's short bank shot with 7:58 remaining, snapping a 56-all tie.

Gates, fouled by Dan Gadzuric while attempting a 3-point shot, made all three free throws with 3:38 left to give the Bears a six-point lead.

Moiso scored the game's next four points to cut Cal's lead to 69-67 with 2:42 to play, and Gadzuric's tip-in with one minute left made it 71-70. But that was as close as the Bruins would get.

Gates, a sophomore averaging just 4.7 points, made a pair of 3-point shots to spark a 13-8 Cal run to start the second half, giving the Bears a 44-38 lead, and a layup by Shipp made it 48-40.

The Bruins then scored 12 straight points - eight by Kapono - for a 52-48 lead before Legans, who is averaging 8.7 points, made consecutive 3-point shots to put Cal ahead by two with 10:42 remaining.

The Bears led at halftime 31-30 despite committing 18 of their 23 turnovers. They scored the final seven points of the half - all on free throws.

"Our team played hard and we defended hard," Cal head coach Ben Braun said. "We rushed and took some early shots in the first half. In the second half, we rotated the ball well and our team played unselfishly.In total, our players were playing with much better purpose in the second half."