Feb. 1, 2001

Cal Video Presentation

BenBraun, SeanLampley, ShantayLegans and RyanForehan-Kelly Postgame Video: Braun Postgame Video @56k Braun Postgame Video @250k Players Postgame Video @56k Players Postgame Video @250k

Download the Free Windows Media Player.

Box Score

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) - Sean Lampley tried to pretend California's 92-63 victory over UCLA on Thursday night was nothing special. But he couldn't stop smiling.

"They gave us our last loss at home and they gave us a whooping by 20," said Lampley. "So yes, there may have been some extra motivation. We all remember last year."

Ryan Forehan-Kelly scored 16 points as Cal scored its largest margin of victory over the Bruins since a 49-16 victory during the 1922-23 season.

Lampley and Solomon Hughes each added 11 points for the Bears (6-2, 15-5), who have won 14 consecutive home games. This was the first sellout of the year, and Cal fans flooded the floor in celebration afterward.

Cal has won 14 of its last 16, its best stretch since Jason Kidd and Lamond Murray led the Bears in 1994. Cal's only losses since Dec. 5 have been to Arizona and Stanford.

Jason Kapono scored 15 points and Earl Watson had 13 for the Bruins (6-2, 12-6), who suffered their worst loss of the season, and had a two-game winning streak snapped. UCLA had won eight of its previous nine.

Last season, UCLA overcame a 19-point first-half deficit to beat Cal 83-62 at Haas Pavilion.

"We've said all year long once we get up by 15, we can't let a team back in," said Lampley. "When we got up tonight, we kept pushing the ball, not relaxing."

After the Bruins opened the second half with a basket, Cal went on a 17-7 run to open a 30-point lead. Cal eventually led by as many as 32 points, UCLA's largest deficit of the season.

"Sure it's big for our team's mentality because we think we can play with anybody," said Cal guard Shantay Legans.

The Bears, who shot over 60 percent from the field, and 59 percent from beyond the arc, tied a school record with 13 three-pointers and a school conference mark with 29 assists. Legans had nine of them to go with 10 points.

"I think it's an understatement to say that Cal played extremely well," said UCLA coach Steve Lavin. "They beat us to the punch in every phase of the game."

While neither team was ranked, both are among the top 20 in the power ratings.

Anything the Bears tried in the first half seemed to work, as nine players scored in the game's first 10 minutes to help Cal open a 32-12 edge. Cal used a 14-2 run early in the contest to build the lead. The Bears made 12 of their first 15 shots (80 percent), including 5-of-6 from 3-point range.

"We hit a lot of three's because we were breaking their press," said Forehan-Kelly. "They were wide open."

Meanwhile, the Bruins struggled from everywhere on the court. They missed nine of their first 13 shots and finished the half shooting just over 32 percent. UCLA was 1-of-11 from 3-point range.

"We couldn't buy a basket," said Lavin. "We didn't play with much poise."

At one point during a first-half timeout, Lavin came out to argue a call with an official. The Cal rooting section greeted him with the chant, "Get Pitino, Get Pitino," and held up signs with Rick Pitino's face on it that read "I got next, Lavin."

Cal led by at least 10 points for all but six minutes of the game.

The Bears led by as many as 22 points before settling for a 48-28 halftime

Postgame Quotes

California Head Coach Ben Braun ~

"I think everyone here could see our guys were playing hard. We were prepared and ready for UCLA's best shot. We stayed solid basketball. I thought our effort over 40 minutes was as good as we could do. As a team, we played as well as any game this year. I've challenged our players to improve. I'm on our guys to play a perfect practice as often as we can and our guys had some good practices this week."

"We hit a lot of three's, but they gave us a lot of three's. Twenty-nine assists means you're playing like a team. I think any coach in the country would be pleased with that."

"You don't ever go into a game thinking this is going to happen, and it's not going to happen to UCLA very often. The fact is our team played very well."

UCLA Head Coach Steve Lavin ~

"I think that it is an understatement to say that Cal played extremely well, and we played extremely poor. So as a result, you've got a big disparity in the score. I think that they beat us to the punch in every phase of the game, in transition, on the backboards, they were quick in their rotations and we were slow in our rotations."

"We couldn't buy a basket and we didn't play with much poise and defensively, we were a step slow all night."

"We didn't score much, so were not able to get into our press and that was the thing that hurts us. When we don't score or we don't get to the foul line, we are not able to get our press set-up."

"It's (Haas Pavilion) one of the best facilities in America. The crowd had great energy and I think that their (Cal's) fans were tremendous. They were on their feet the entire game and they appreciate good basketball."

Cal Player Quotes

Ryan Forehan-Kelly

" A lot of our three's came from our press break. We got the all up the court and stayed composes. We moved the ball around and got wide open shots."

Sean Lampley

"We feel good after this win, but at the same time, the game is over with and we've got to now look at USC. We kept (Jason) Kapono under his season average, and the big men played really well against (Dan) Gadzuric. We kept doing what got us that lead: playing good defense and pushing the ball up the court. Whatever our motivation was to win and play hard today, we need to carry that into Saturday's game."

Shantay Legans

"The Gold team (practice squad) was great all week. They played really hard and prepared us for UCLA's press. We felt that if we beat the first half of their press, we knew we had a good chance to score."