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Amit Tamir shredded the UCLA defense for 14-second-half points as Cal routed the Bruins, 69-51, last night at Haas Pavilion in a game that got testy down the stretch.  

With the win, Cal improved its record to 19-6 and 10-5 in the Pac-10. UCLA fell to 17-9 and 9-6. Cal moved past UCLA into sole possession of third place in the conference.  

Cal was coming off a disheartening loss at Washington, 75-60. Prior to that game, Matt Lyon, Cal’s assistant vice chancellor for public affairs, who was accompanying the Bears on the Washington trip, passed away of a heart attack.  

“(Thursday) was a huge game for us,” Cal coach Ben Braun said. “This was the biggest game our team has had to face, after a tough loss, a tragic death of a close member of our basketball family. To play under these conditions is really something.”  

The game bore little resemblance to the tight 64-57 loss the Bears suffered to the Bruins down in Los Angeles on Jan. 26. Back then, the Bears struggled mightily against the Bruins’ 2-3 zone. This time, they aggressively attacked the zone in the first half and then made their perimeter shots over the zone in the second stanza. Cal shot 6-of-11 from three-point range in the second half after making just 1-of-9 threes in the first half. The Bears shot 46.3 percent from the field for the game.  

“They allowed us to move the ball a lot more,” Cal guard Brian Wethers said. “They didn’t pressure as much on the wing.”  

“They just got the ball inside and that opened up their outside,” UCLA coach Steve Lavin said. “They took 30-plus threes in the game at Pauley [Pavilion]. Today they came out and established the game in the paint.”  

Tamir led Cal in scoring with 18 points. Wethers (15 points), Solomon Hughes (12) and Joe Shipp (11) also scored in double figures. Shipp and Wethers led Cal with 6 rebounds apiece. Wethers completed his all-around play by leading Cal with 6 assists. Overall, Cal had 21 assists on its 25 field goals.  

UCLA’s Dan Gadzuric tied Tamir for game-high honors with 18 and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds, but Cal’s stingy defense held UCLA’s leading scorer Jason Kapono, who averaged 17.6 points per game coming into the night, to just 10 points on 3-of-9 shooting.  

With the Golden Bears up 66-51 with 2:24 to go, UCLA forward Matt Barnes clotheslined Cal point guard Shantay Legans as the latter went up for a rebound. Barnes, a 6-foot-7, 235-pound forward, knocked the 5-foot-10, 175-pound Legans to the floor, which he hit headfirst. Legans was unconscious for about two minutes and Barnes was ejected from the game. After Legans walked off the court with a likely concussion, Dennis Gates replaced him to sink one of two free throws. Legans’ availability for Saturday afternoon’s clash with USC was unknown.  

“It depends on how severe it is,” Braun said. “If it’s a severe concussion, he may not [play]. That would be very unfortunate. The good thing is he’s okay right now.” 

Hughes and Wethers led the way for the Bears in the first half with 10 points each. In fact, Hughes made his first five shots as Cal bolted out to a 16-7 lead. Cal figured out how to score against UCLA’s zone and also how to shut down the Bruins. Gadzuric was the only Bruin who could get any offensive rhythm, as his team shot just 33.3 percent from the field in the half. UCLA shot 50 percent in the second half to finish with a respectable 42.6 mark for the game.  

In the second half, Cal rode a three-point barrage to open up the game at 55-32. During one stretch, from the 17:03 to the 10:44 mark, Cal slapped a 20-6 run on the Bruins with six threes among the seven made baskets. The other basket was a two-handed dunk from Wethers. Tamir, who shot 2-of-7 overall in the first half and was 0-of-3 from beyond the arc, hit three 3-pointers during the run. Shipp added two from long range and Ryan Forehan-Kelly hit another. Tamir had three of his four assists during the run.  

“Our passing was sharp, crisp,” Braun said. “We played unselfishly. We did everything we had to do to win. I’m proud of our team.”