Opening-night jitters - Arizona escapes with four-point victory at Cal, The Arizona Daily Star, January 7, 2000 Author: Bruce Pascoe

Arizona still may be the favorite to win the Pac-10 this season. But the Wildcats received their first hard evidence last night that it won't ever be easy.

Playing before a noisy sellout crowd of more than 12,000 at newly renovated Haas Pavilion, the youthful Wildcats escaped with a 65-61 victory over California only after finally breaking down their even younger opponents' offense.

Arizona trailed Cal for much of the second half but held the Bears to just five points in the final eight minutes of the game, taking advantage of 15 second-half Bear turnovers.

``We wanted to wear them down when we were ahead,'' said Arizona center Loren Woods, who tied his career high of 23 points. ``But we finally wore them down when we were behind. They're a really young team, and I think our experience made a difference.''

Still, Arizona had a true freshman, Jason Gardner, who helped make the difference down the stretch, and redshirt freshman Luke Walton chipped in with five points by making his first field goals since Dec. 13 against IUPUI.

With the game tied at 58 entering the final three minutes, Walton hit a jump shot, and Gardner followed with a drive to the basket and a dish to Woods, who converted for a 62-58 lead. After a timeout with 1:10 left, Woods added another basket to give Arizona a six-point advantage, and the Bears managed to stay in the game only when Brian Wethers hit a desperation three-pointer with 41 seconds left for Cal.

Wethers' three cut Arizona's lead to 64-61 but Arizona had the ball with 44 seconds left. Gardner held the ball for 19 seconds before a timeout, then another 10 seconds, finally getting fouled with 19 seconds left.

Gardner missed the first of two free throws but made the second to pretty much seal the game at 65-61. Last-second shots from Cal's Joe Shipp and Sean Lampley missed.

``We really wore them down the last five minutes,'' UA forward Michael Wright said. ``This was a tough game for a freshman-dominated team like theirs. But you've got to give them a lot of credit. They gave it all they had.''

The victory moved Arizona to 12-2 entering a showdown with top-ranked Stanford at Maples Pavilion tomorrow at 4 p.m. MST. Cal dropped to 9-4.

But the Wildcats did not leave the locker room last night overly confident.

``If we play like this on Saturday, we aren't going to be talking (happily) in here,'' Walton said. ``Cal outplayed us most of the game. We just played well for about 10 minutes.''

Walton's five points included his first three-pointer for the Wildcats.

Arizona took a 51-50 lead with 11:16 left in the game, after going on a 15-6 run that included Walton's first three-pointer of the season, but that lead didn't last for long in a game that evolved into more of a half-court match.

Cal kept Arizona scoreless for almost the next four minutes to take a 56-51 lead with eight minutes left, but its offense sputtered while Arizona scored eight straight points to take back the lead, 58-56, when Wright hit both ends of a one-and-one attempt with 3:58 to go.

Even though Arizona was playing better down the stretch, there were bad signs cropping up: Richard Jefferson was a limited factor in the second half with foul trouble and ineffectiveness, and Gilbert Arenas picked up a fourth foul, for player control against Shantay Legans, with nine minutes left.

In the first half, both teams shot 47 percent from the field, but Cal out-rebounded the Wildcats 22-15. While Wright and Woods managed just one foul each in the first half while playing loose defense, Jefferson picked up two fouls and was only a limited factor in 11 minutes played.

Cal held Arizona scoreless for a 3 1/2-minute span midway through the first half to take a 33-27 lead. The Bears went on to increase their lead to 40-31 when Sean Lampley sat back in the defense and took a three-quarters-court pass with 4:18 left.

Arizona managed to work the ball inside to Wright and Woods in the final two minutes, cutting the lead to 40-35 at halftime.

Cal center Nick Vander Laan took advantage of the passive UA defense early, powering through it for eight of the Bears' first 10 points. But the Bears couldn't capitalize on their 10-4 lead; Jefferson scored a midrange jumper, and Gardner had five points to tie the game at 12-12 with 14:49 left.

Arenas then launched three straight three-pointers to help Arizona take a 25-22 lead, and Arizona led 27-25 on a turnaround jumper by Woods with 9:33 left in the half before Cal scored eight straight points to take their 33-27 lead.

Woods led both teams in first-half scoring with 12 points while Vander Laan had 10 for Cal.