Jan. 7, 2006

Recap |  Box Score

California Head Coach Ben Braun

"Oregon State was hungry and we knew that, much like we were going on the road to USC and UCLA. When your backs are against the wall you have a sense of urgency. It's easier to lose than it is to win; winning is hard. There is only one team in first place and it's hard to get there and hard to stay there as well. It's about urgency and getting ourselves fully prepared to go out there and play our best and that didn't happen. Early in the game we got down and that sparked some frustration on our part. I didn't think we did a good job on shot selection early. They had some three point shots, their big guys stepped out. They really had us at odds."

"If you look at what we were trying to do late in the game, trying to chip away points, possession by possession, getting inside, getting to the foul line; that has been our mentality all the way through. Our mentality has been to go inside, create offense for ourselves, and get to the foul line. At times we did that, we got Richard Midgley going early. Richard is a guy that if he's not on the floor in the first half we have a really big hole to fill."

Oregon State Head Coach Jay John

"I thought they played excellent. They executed the game plan as well as we have ever on the road. We knew we had to shoot well to win."

"If we shoot the ball well and didn't give those many opportunities to them, the better it would be. Also if we played well offensively, the better our defense would be."

"This was the best game so far...we rebounded well enough to have control of the tempo and play the speed we wanted to play."

"We didn't want to go down deep and meet up with their big guys. Our goal was to take the big guys away from the basket and make them play defense."

"Over the last couple of years our program has been kind of a teeter-toter. This game gives us the opportunity to stay at a higher level."