California @ Washington preview

California at Washington

Last Meeting ( Jan 9, 2021 ) Washington 78, California 84

California and Washington have yet to show they are able to sustain success, which is why Saturday's matchup in Seattle will determine which team resides in the Pacific-12 Conference basement heading into the last week of the regular season.

The Golden Bears followed up perhaps their best game of the season, a 71-62 victory over Colorado last Saturday, with their most lopsided defeat, 81-52 at Washington State on Thursday night.

"As well as we played on Saturday, and then to flip the coin and play that poorly (Thursday) ... we have to develop the competitive maturity to play every day," Golden Bears coach Mark Fox said.

Cal (8-16 overall, 3-14 Pac-12) shot just 36 percent from the field. Matt Bradley, who didn't start because he wasn't feeling well, finished with a team-high 16 points in 23 minutes.

Washington State, which was without starting point guard Isaac Bonton after he rolled both of his ankles last week against Southern California, got a career-high 32 points from Noah Williams. The Cougars shot 51.7 percent from the field, made 12 of 23 3-point attempts, and committed just seven turnovers.

"I was really disappointed in the effort we gave," Fox said.

Washington (4-17, 3-13), which won 65-63 at Washington State on Monday, followed that up with a 79-61 loss at home to Stanford on Thursday.

"We didn't have a lot of energy. You could feel it," Huskies coach Mike Hopkins said. "I don't if it's the four games in eight days, but the pop wasn't there."

Against Washington State, Marcus Tsohonis scored a career-high 29 points in a rare start and made a floating jump shot in the lane with 2.4 seconds remaining to break a tie. But against Stanford he came off the bench and made only 2 of 11 shots and managed only four points in 24 minutes.

Stanford shot 57.4 percent from the field against the Huskies' zone defense.

"We had some defensive breakdowns and they were able to get 50 points in the paint, which is a lot," Hopkins said. Obviously, we got to do a better job than that."

The Huskies committed a season-high 22 turnovers, which led to 20 Stanford points. Washington also went to the free-throw line just once.

"When we get organized and we're in the right spots and end up sharing the ball, we get good shots," Hopkins said. "When we go a little rogue and sometimes we're overplaying a little bit and trying to do too much rather than share the ball, that's when we turn it over and bad shots come that lead to fast breaks. (Thursday) we took a step back."

The teams met Jan. 9 in Berkeley, Calif., with the host Golden Bears coming away with an 84-78 victory despite the absence of Bradley, who missed the game with an injury.

--Field Level Media