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Cal Basketball: UCLA Cruises to its 10th Straight Victory over the Golden Bears

Cal shot well early but Mark Fox said the defense wasn't nearly up to snuff.

No. 7 UCLA played without its player against Cal on Thursday night, and it didn’t matter.

The Bruins shook off early hot shooting by the Bears and raced to an 81-57 victory at Pauley Pavilion, UCLA’s 10th straight win over Cal.

Junior guard Johnny Juzang, the hero of UCLA’s run to the Final Four a year ago and the teams leading scorer, was out due to COVID-19 protocols. The Bruins (15-2, 7-1 Pac-12) still were on their game two nights after a dominating 75-59 win over No. 3 Arizona.

Cal (9-11, 2-7) lost its sixth straight game and has won just three times in its past 47 road outings.

The Bears led 11-9 after 4 minutes and shot 52 percent in the first half, but UCLA got the better of them in every other way to forge a 43-29 halftime lead.

The margin was never closer than 10 points in the second half and UCLA went up 65-45 after two free throws by Cody Riley with 8:24 to play.

The game became so one-sided that Pac-12 Networks analyst — and UCLA legend — Bill Walton drifted off into a monologue about the 142nd anniversary of Thomas Edison receiving a patent for the incandescent lamp.

Coach Mark Fox said his complaints with the Bears’ performance begin with defense. The Bruins shot 52 percent for the night, 44 percent from the 3-point line and flip-flopped the rebounding margin from the teams’ first meeting, beating the Bears 33-25 while creating 15 points off nine offensive rebounds.

“Our defense, we’ve got to find it,” Fox said on his post-game radio show. "We have to find some answers there because our team will only have chances to win if we play great on the defensive end. And we did not do that today.

“We’ve got to be able to roll our sleeves up and do the dirty work on the defensive end first, which will help us on the offensive end. Our defense is absent right now.”

The issues at the other end of the floor included 17 turnovers that UCLA transformed into 16 points, and gruesome 3-point shooting. The Bears made 3 of their first 4 tries from deep, then just 3 of their final 17 attempts.

“And we have to find someone who can shoot the ball,” Fox said.

Toward that end he gave a start to freshman forward Sam Alajiki, who had made nine of his previous 12 attempts from beyond the arc. Alajiki hit a pair of 3’s early and wound up with a season-best and team-leading 11 points.

“He started the game well,” Fox praised. “Defensively, he’ s just a freshman and he makes so many errors. He’s going to have to learn on the job at that end of the floor.”

Alajiki started in place of fifth-year senior Grant Anticevich, who has been mired in a slump. Anticevich, who made seven 3-pointers in a win over Pacific the week before Christmas, was 2 for 13 over four games entering play Thursday.

"Grant’s just having a really tough stretch and hopefully he can battle his way through it. I decided to take a little pressure off him tonight by bringing him off the bench,” Fox said. “We have to get Grant going. He’s been a good player for us and he’s just really, really struggling at the moment.”

Anticevich played tentatively, shooting 0 for 5, four of them from deep, in a scoreless 19 minutes.

Jordan Shepherd and Kuany Kuany each scored nine for the Bears.

UCLA’s defense kept the ball out of the hands of Andre Kelly, who had six points and seven rebounds but got got just four shot attempts.

The threesome of Shepherd, Kelly and Anticevich have carried the Bears, but against the Bruins they combined for just 15 points. “We’ve got to get the main guns back all firing at the same time,” Fox acknowleged.

Jaime Jaquez Jr. led the Bruins with 15 points, Riley had a season-best 14 points and Jules Bernard and Peyton Watson each scored 12.

The first-half shortcomings neutralized the Bears’ good shooting:

— Cal had nine turnovers which the Bruins turned into 10 points

— UCLA grabbed six offensive rebounds and cashed them in for 10 more points. Cal had zero offensive rebounds in the half.

— UCLA shot 56 percent, with Jaquez making 6 of 9 to score 12 points

A 3-pointer by Jalen Celestine pushed Cal into an 11-9 lead with 16:26 left but UCLA responded with a 10-0 run that was fueled by a pair of 3-pointers from Jules Bernard and two baskets following Cal turnovers.

The Bruins continued to force the action and led 40-22 after a basket by Jaquez with 2:40 left in the half.

Cal answered with a 7-0 surge triggered by five points from Shepherd, but Watson made a 3-pointer for the Bruins with 3 seconds left in the half, pushing the lead back to 14 points.

Cover photo of Kuany Kuany trying to defend UCLA's Tyger Campbell by Jayne Kamin-Oncea, USA Today

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo