Huskies Add to Cal Misery, Hand Bears 12th Consecutive Loss

The UW never trailed in claiming third win in a row.

The University of Washington-California basketball game was in doubt for all of 20 seconds.

On Thursday night in Berkeley, it simply took that long for freshman guard Keyon Menifield to get up the floor, launch the first shot of the contest and watch it swish through for the Huskies, who never trailed and emerged with a 65-56 victory over these Bad News Bears.

Missing multiple players and its season in shambles, Cal (3-25 overall, 2-15 Pac-12) lost its 12th consecutive outing, unable to beat anyone for 48 days now and counting. 

Fourth-year Bears coach Mark Fox, the former UW assistant coach for Lynn Nance (1991-93), certainly won't survive this mess having become the conference coach most likely to lose his job.

Seven-footers Braxton Meah of the UW and Lars Thiemann of Cal battle inside :: D. Ross Cameron/USA TODAY Sports

Meanwhile, the Huskies (16-13, 8-10) won their third consecutive game, just their second on the road this season and are making it tougher for the school to move on from sixth-year coach Mike Hopkins, something that's been discussed in-house. His team has spent much of the season in the lower half of the Pac-12 standings and is in danger of missing the NCAA tournament for the fourth consecutive season.

However on this night, Hopkins' guys jumped off to a 6-0 lead before Cal could answer, survived a Bears' run that brought the hosts within 22-20 and relied on the 22 points combined by Keion Brooks and Menifield to lead 32-24 at intermission.

Keion Brooks had another big night for the UW with 24 points and 11 rebounds :: D. Ross Cameron/USA TODAY Sports

Brooks, a 6-foot-7 senior forward and Kentucky transfer, topped the UW and all scorers with 24 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Menifield contributed 16 points and fellow freshman guard Koren Johnson chipped in 10. Cal was led by reserve forward Sam Alajiki, who had 13 points.

The Huskies were missing senior guards Noah Williams and PJ Fuller, the first for his continuing knee issues that included in-season surgery and the other for unspecified personal reasons.

This just enabled the UW to go to those dynamic young guards, teaming Menifield and Johnson together for long stretches. 

Meantime, in a near-empty Haas Pavilion, Cal couldn't shoot. Nearly everything went clank. The Bears missed 20 of their first 24 attempts from floor. It was an uphill climb from the opening tip.

Things got so bad for the Bears, they lost freshman guard Monty Bowser at the 15:37 of the second half all because of his big mouth. Bowser fouled the UW's Cole Bajema on a drive for his fourth personal and didn't like the call. He drew a technical foul for complaining, which fouled him out. Bowser earned a second T when he kept griping loudly on his way to the bench.

The game was chippie throughout for both sides, in particular when the Cal's Kuany Kuany tried to slap the ball from Brooks' hands with play stopped, Brooks took exception and they exchanged words though not in a heated fashion, and they drew a double technical with six and half minutes remaining.

The UW's Johnson earned a T inside the final four minutes and it was followed a short time later by one on Cal's Fox, who was whistled for one with 3:19 left to play and his team down 56-50.

The Huskies now take three days off before finishing up this Bay Area road trip at Stanford (11-16, 5-11 before facing WSU) on Sunday, down to two games in the regular season.

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