On to the finals: Resilient Bears slip by scrappy Bruins 85-72 behind second half run

Nobody thought it would be easy. UCLA certainly didn’t make it so. The Bruins held the lead at the half and for nearly the entire first half, but the Bears didn’t care. As they’ve shown all year, they have the ability to run right by teams. They did just that in the second, outscoring them by 17 in the second to pull out an impressive victory.




The first half started in UCLA’s favor, with them leading 14-7 6 minutes into the game. They would extend the lead to 10 at 20-10 with 12:30 left in the first. Theo Robertson would knock down a 3 later to bring the lead to a mere 2, 22-20. It was a 10-2 run for Cal. Off a Michael Roll 3, the Bruins would extend the lead to 39-30 with a minute to play in the first. Undeterred, the Bears would score the next 5 to close the gap to 4.



The Bears, continuing the momentum from the first, would rip off the next 5 as well, giving them the lead 40-39. A timeout would do nothing for UCLA, as Cal would continue the run to 52-44. From there, the Bruins could only muster sporadic challenges and never really threatened much. That led to a great second half comeback and a 85-72 victory for the Bears.



Jerome Randle did his thing, scoring 24 points and dishing out 6 assists. Perhaps most impressive is his 7-11 shooting on the night and the fact that Malcolm Lee, the opposing point, scored a mere 6 points. Randle put together a Pac-10 Player of the Year type performance in guiding the Bears over UCLA.



Theo Robertson and Patrick Christopher, the other 2 components of the “Big 3”, also stepped up their games. Robertson scored 20, and Christopher added 16 of his own. They both shot over 50% for the game, and Christopher contributed 6 rebounds.



Nikola Dragovic really dragged his Bruins down, putting together a dismal performance. Shooting 3-12 on the night, including 1-8 from 3, was horrendous and he only scored 8 on the night.



Jerime Anderson was a bright spot for the Bruins, as was Michael Roll. Roll, donning the UCLA uniform for the final time, scored 27 points and held his team in it for a half. Anderson, the only other Bruin in double figures, scored 15 points off the bench.



The home less has been sufficiently avenged. The hated Bruins season is now over on our watch. Now it’s time to finish as undisputed Pac-10 champion, tournament and regular season.