March 2, 2000

Box Score

BERKELEY - California rushed out to a 19-point lead in the first half, but watched UCLA come back to win by 21 as the Bruins cruised to an 83-62 victory Thursday in Haas Pavilion.

With the loss, the Bears likely fell out of NCAA Tournament contention. They enter the final three games of the regular season with a 15-12 overall record and a 6-9 Pac-10 mark. UCLA climbed to 16-11 and 7-8 with the win.

In the opening minutes, Cal could seem to do no wrong. Shantay Legans and Dennis Gates both hit three-pointers, and five other players scored in the fist 12:30 of the game. As a result, the Bears held a 31-12 lead with 8:28 to go and a 33-14 advantage with 6:30 left.

But at that point, UCLA turned up its game. Dan Gadzuric began to dominate inside and the Bruins closed the half on a 16-2 run.

UCLA kept it going in the second half, scoring the first eight point out of the break. Cal kept pace and took its final lead at 47-45 on a Ryan Forehan-Kelly jumper with 14:39 remaining.

Gadzuric and Jason Kapono then led UCLA to the rout. Gadzuric finished with 22 points and 16 rebounds, while Kapono had 20 points, including five three-pointers. The Bruins shot 63.3 percent from the floor in the second half compared to Cal's 28.6 percent. UCLA also won the rebound battle, 45-29.

California vs. UCLA Post-Game Quotes

California Head Coach Ben Braun:

"I thought Dan Gadzuric really stepped up tonight. He gave their team some life when they needed it. He made a big difference for them. He provided them with a chance to come back. That, to me, was a bigger key to the game than anything."

"We didn't become consistent enough. We allowed them to come back quickly. All of a sudden, they came up with some easy baskets and at the same time we didn't keep them on the defensive end very long."

UCLA Head Coach Steve Lavin:

"We couldn't be happier for our kids. It's been kind of a roller coaster season, when you lose 6 out of 7 at UCLA, it doesn't play out very well. To our kids' credit, they kept their chins up and just kept plugging and working and coming to practice with the right attitude. Now they've put themselves in a position where we can finish the season pretty strong and make a case for making the NCAA tournament."

"Our biggest concern was putting ourselves in a hole. Down 19 (points) on the road is not exactly the way you want to start a Bay Area road trip. The zone (defense) kind of turned the game around for us. Going to the zone is usually something you don't do when you're down 19 (points), but there hasn't been anything usual about this season, so we figured that was a good enough reason right there to go to the zone."

"This team has really struggled to score at times, so when you have a deficit of 19, you're really concerned with how you're going to create the points to get back into the game. The zone (defense) really turned things and (Jerome) Moiso and (Dan) Gadzuric dominated in the paint."