California did something Saturday that no team has done in a long time.
The Golden Bears silenced Oregon’s notoriously loud Pit Crew.
During a timeout with 10:44 left in the second half of Saturday’s game, you could’ve heard a hot dog turning at a McArthur Court concession stand. The score stood 57-48, California, after Oregon had been up for most of the game.
The sold-out crowd swelled with furious noise again as the Ducks led a charge and got as close as six points with 2:45 left, but Cal hit free throws down the stretch, kept Oregon at arm’s length and won the game, 86-75.
“We really wanted this game,” Oregon center Matt Short said.
But instead, the Ducks lost their second game in three tries and, today, Oregon (16-6 overall, 6-5 Pacific-10 Conference) should drop out of both national polls for the first time since mid-January 2002.
The Bears (16-4, 9-2 Pac-10) used a strong second-half run to topple the Ducks. Oregon scored only 10 points in the first 14 minutes of the second half, as Cal went on a 30-10 run that all but ended the Ducks’ chances.
But Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said the key to the Ducks’ loss was contained in the first half, not the second.

“In the first half, we had several opportunities to push the lead to 10 or 12 points, but we felt like we rushed some things, made some tough decisions,” Kent said. “And each time we did that, Cal made us pay.”
Cal truly made Oregon pay in the second half. Cal shot 68.4 percent from the field in the second half, and when the free throws mattered down the stretch, the Bears made just enough to get the win. Cal hit 16 of 20 free throws in the final 2-1/2 minutes, when Oregon was fouling on almost every possession.
For a while, it looked like Oregon might get back into the game despite Cal’s second-half dominance. With 5:57 left and the Ducks losing by 16, Oregon’s Luke Ridnour fed Short for a dunk and an extra point when Short was fouled by Cal’s A.J. Diggs. The Ducks started a full-court press, which caused a backcourt violation on the Bears, and Ridnour hit an NBA-range three-pointer with Cal guard Richard Midgely hanging all over him. As the crowd went nuts, Ridnour then stole the ball on the next possession, and again on the possession after that in a de-pantsing of Cal’s Brian Wethers on a fast break.
All that put Oregon within 10 points, but the Ducks missed shots on the next possessions, and forward Robert Johnson fouled out of the game. After another Short dunk and Ridnour trey, Oregon got within six points at 71-65 with less than three minutes left, and the Ducks started fouling. That’s when the game seemed to simply slip from Oregon’s grasp.
“They just hit their shots down the stretch,” a visibly downtrodden Ridnour said after the game. “They’re a veteran team; they know how to hit those shots. They hit their shots, we didn’t, and that was the story right there.”
Ridnour led the Ducks with 19 points but fouled out of the game, the first time he’s ever fouled out of a game in three years at Oregon. He also extended his record streak of consecutive free throws to 47, the Pac-10 record for free throws in conference games only. Luke Jackson, who had 13 stitches removed from his injured right ring finger after the game, scored only nine points. Kent said Jackson’s game is still suffering from his injury.
Oregon will have a week off before facing Oregon State on Saturday in Corvallis. The Bears, only one game out of first place in the Pacific-10 Conference, head home to face Washington State and Washington this week.