There’s No Payback, Only a Painful Loss for Stanford

Arizona ended Stanford’s 18-game winning streak. The Cardinal couldn’t follow suit.

Miles Simon had 20 points and eight assists, and A.J. Bramlett had 11 points and a career-high 19 rebounds as the second-ranked Wildcats routed No. 8 Stanford, 90-58, Saturday at Tucson to clinch their eighth Pacific 10 championship in 15 seasons under Coach Lute Olson.

“This is the first group of seniors we’ve had in a while that hadn’t won a [conference] championship their first three years,” said Olson, whose Wildcats finished fifth in the Pacific 10 last season before making their run to the NCAA championship. “They really wanted it.”

Arizona, 26-3 overall and 16-0 in the Pacific 10, also tied a school record by winning its 19th consecutive game, the nation’s longest current winning streak. The Cardinal (24-4, 13-3) won its first 18 games before losing to Arizona, 93-75, at Palo Alto on Jan. 29.

Jason Terry and Michael Dickerson had 15 points each. Dickerson, who had 21 points in the second half in Thursday night’s victory over California, was scoreless at halftime.

Mike Bibby had 14 points and seven assists, six in the second half when the Wildcats went on a 17-4 run to take a 53-33 lead.

Bibby finished three fastbreaks with alley-oop passes during the surge that put the game out of reach with 12:34 to play, and Arizona went on to outscore Stanford, 59-38, in the half.

“We just got outplayed every way possible,” Stanford Coach Mike Montgomery said. “Once the tempo was established, it was tough for us to stay in the game.”

Bramlett wanted establish his inside scoring.

“The other night I only had three points, and I wanted to get back to my old self,” he said.

Arizona also got a sizable contribution from Bennett Davison, who had a school-record nine steals.

Stanford shot only 34.9%, missing 14 of 20 three-point shots, and had only one player score in double figures: Mark Madsen with 10 points.

Arizona State 99, California 80--Jeremy Veal scored 17 of his game-high 23 points in the first half, including five in a 14-0 run that gave the Sun Devils (18-11, 8-8) control of the game at Tempe, Ariz.

Bobby Lazor scored 22 points and Mike Batiste had 20 for Arizona State, which led by as many as 25 points.

Cal (11-14, 7-9) was led by Geno Carlisle, who had 19 points.

Oregon 50, Oregon State 48--The Ducks (13-12, 8-8) overcome poor shooting at Corvallis, Ore., to defeat the Beavers (12-16, 8-8) for the 10th consecutive time.

Oregon shot 31% and made only 54% of its free throws. But Tarik Brown made two free throws with 12 seconds to play to give the Ducks a 49-48 lead.

Deaundra Tanner, who led Oregon State with 18 points, missed a short jump shot with three seconds left. Jamar Curry rebounded the ball for Oregon and was fouled with one second left. Curry made the first free throw and missed his second, but the Beavers were unable to control the rebound as time ran out.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

They’re In

Schools that have received automatic bids to the NCAA tournament. All bids are by virtue of conference tournament championships with the exception of the Ivy League and Pacific 10, which do not conduct postseason tournaments:

* Arizona: Pacific 10

* College of Charleston: Trans America Athletic

* Princeton: Ivy

* Radford: Big South