Pondexter, Washington Knock Off Cal to Win Pac-10 Championship, 79-75

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Los Angeles, CA (Sports Network) - Quincy Pondexter had 18 points to lead Washington to a 79-75 win over California, as the Huskies won their second Pac-10 Conference Tournament title.

Isaiah Thomas had 16 points and Venoy Overton added 10 points and five boards for the Huskies (24-9), who won their only other title in 2005 and received the automatic berth the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

“What a college basketball game,” said Washington head coach Lorenzo Romar. “Both teams played, I thought, at an extremely high level. Both teams were competing. It was obvious something was on the line for both teams.”

Theo Robertson had 25 points and five boards while Jamal Boykin added 20 points and 14 rebounds for the Golden Bears (23-10), who have never won a Pac-10 Tournament title.

“Well, it’s disappointing, obviously,” said California head coach Mike Montgomery. “In some ways it’s surprising that we shot the ball as poorly as we did from two of the people who were primary guys for us [Jerome Randle and Patrick Christopher] and we had a chance at the end to win. We made mistakes that we normally don’t make. We gave them too many easy shots and we weren’t as patient on offense as we needed to be.”

With the score tied at 66-all, Jerome Randle gave Cal the lead with two from the line, but Elston Turner put Washington on top. He sank a layup moments before knocking down a three for a 71-68 Huskies lead with 3 1/2 minutes to play.

A Robertson turnover was converted into two points by Justin Holiday, expanding Washington’s lead to two possessions.

Patrick Christopher answered with a three, but two Tyreese Breshers foul shots followed by a Pondexter jumper gave Washington a 77-71 lead with a minute left.

On the next Cal possession, Randle pulled up for a long three-ball and made it a one-touch game with 50.1 seconds to play.

Following a timeout, the Huskies ate up as much time as they could, but a turnover by Pondexter resulted in California taking the ball downcourt and calling timeout with 15.2 seconds to play.

Turner was called for a foul and Randle hit one of his shots from the line with 4.4 seconds to play to make it a two-point game. But Overton hit both his attempts with 2.1 seconds left to seal the win.

Washington built a seven-point lead early in the second half, when the teams traded a number of runs. The Huskies were ahead 59-51, but moments later, a Boykin jumper kick-started a 12-0 burst that he completed with another basket for a 64-61 lead with just over eight minutes to play.

A few minutes later, Christopher made a jumper, but Matthew Bryan-Amaning followed with a basket, and a three-ball from Overton tied the game with just under five minutes to play.

The lead went back and forth through the first several minutes of the first half, but the Golden Bears were ahead 25-22 with 10 1/2 minutes to play thanks to a Robertson layup.

Pondexter scored eight straight Huskies points to help them go in front, and a Thomas jumper had Washington up 41-37 at the break.

It was only the Bears’ second appearance in the final, as they lost to UCLA in 2006...California holds a 77-76 lead in the series...Randle had 12 points while Christopher had 11...Washington shot 52.7 percent while California hit 41.7 percent of its shots.