Men's Basketball Squad Falls To ASU

Men's Basketball Squad Falls To ASU

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Eddie House scored 21 points, grabbed eight rebounds and dished out eight assists to lead Arizona State to an 85-76 victory over California Thursday night, handing the Bears their 10th consecutive loss in Tempe.

Cal, now 16-13 overall and 7-10 in the Pac-10, completes the regular season Saturday at Arizona, while ASU improved to 18-11 and 10-7 with the victory. The Bears will then wait to hear if they will get a chance to defend their NIT title with another bid to the postseason tournament.

As they've done in their last several games, the Bears jumped out to a quick start, this time going up 12-4. Sophomore Ryan Forehan-Kelly made a pair of three-pointers and a shot jumper to lead Cal.

ASU came back to tie the game at 15-15, but a Nick Vander Laan free throw and a three-pointer from Joe Shipp pushed the Bears lead back to four at 21-17. Cal had a 23-22 advantage with 7:25 left in the half when the Sun Devils put on a 10-1 run to take the lead for good. The Bears closed the period on a 6-0 spurt to close to 37-33 at the break.

In the second half, House totaled 13 of his 21 points and Donnell Knight scored 10 more as ASU went up by as many as 12 points. Cal did cut it to 75-71 on Shantay Legans' three-pointer with 2:32 to go. ASU, though, made 8-of-10 free throws down the stretch to clinch the win.

In addition to House, four other Sun Devils reached double figures. Knight finished with 16, Chad Prewitt and Tanner Shell add 14 and Alton Mason tallied 11.

Sean Lampley led Cal with 21 points, while Shipp came off the bench for 17 points and Forehan-Kelly had 11.

"We had some chances early to establish some things," said Cal head coach Ben Braun. "I thought we came out and played hard and with a lot of intensity. Then, we gave up a couple of baskets and let Arizona State back in the game.

"I thought Ryan Forehan-Kelly and Robbie Jones did a good job on House, but he did get eight assists and hit some big shots. They proved they are more than just a one-man team."

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