EUGENE, Ore. – The California curse continues for No. 23 Oregon.
Justin Cobbs hit a long jump shot with 0.7 seconds left and the Golden Bears rallied to upset the league-leading Ducks 48-46 on Thursday night.
The loss was Oregon’s 11th straight against Cal (17-9, 9-5 Pac-12), and this time, the Ducks (21-6, 10-4) had no one to blame but themselves.
The Ducks shot a season-low 27.6 percent from the field and it led to a season low in points. They were 16 for 58 from the field, 2 for 15 from the 3-point line and 12 for 20 from the free throw line.
“That’s really a disappointing loss,” said Oregon coach Dana Altman, who was going for his 600th career win. “The guys played awfully hard, but you got to hit some shots. We had some open looks and didn’t knock them down.”
Oregon lost sole possession of first place in the Pac-12 with the loss and is tied with Arizona.
Cal, meanwhile, continued its climb up the rankings with its sixth win in seven games. The Bears are tied with Arizona State for third place, just one game behind the Ducks and Wildcats.
Arsalan Kazemi had 11 points and a season-high 18 rebounds for the Ducks, who lost their 11th straight game to the Bears. Carlos Emory scored 13 points for Oregon, which hasn’t beaten Cal since Feb. 9, 2008.
“The last game against California, I told Coach I let him down, I didn’t play my best,” said Kazemi, who had 10 points and six rebounds in a 58-54 loss to Cal three weeks ago. “And it really hurts right now sitting here and not winning this game.”
Cobbs’ final shot, which came after the Golden Bears ran nearly all of the final 26 seconds off the clock, hit nothing but net.
“Pure as the driven snow,” Cal coach Mike Montgomery said.
The shot was bit of redemption for Cobbs, who had a team-high 14 points to go with eight rebounds and seven assists. But the junior guard also had a team-high eight turnovers.
But with the game on the line, he asked for the ball.
“Just the whole game I felt like I had a lot of mental lapses and I owed it to my team,” Cobbs said. “I’ve been working on my jump shot a lot and I knew if I got the ball in the right spot I’d be able to knock it down.”
Allen Crabbe, the Pac-12’s leading scorer, had 12 points on 5-of-12 shooting. Richard Solomon had eight points and 11 rebounds.
Oregon, which led 26-21 at halftime, was up 46-43 with 2:06 to play when Robert Thurman recorded a three-point play for Cal on a dunk and free throw to tie it.
Oregon had possession with under a minute to play but missed on two shots before Cal got the rebound and called a timeout with 26.3 seconds left.
In the huddle, Cobbs asked for the final shot.
“He wanted it, he felt it. He said, ‘Give me the ball. Give me the ball,” Montgomery said. “He made that shot. It was fabulous.”
Cal trailed by 11 points in the first half but came back to tie the score 29-29 on a dunk by Thurman 4 minutes into the second half.
Oregon went back up 37-33 on a free throw and 3-pointer by E.J. Singler, but the Bears followed with a 6-0 run and Cobbs hit a jumper to put them up 39-37 with 7:12 to play. It was Cal’s first lead since early in the first half.
Trailing 41-39, Oregon followed with five straight points to go ahead 44-41 with 3:30 to play, setting the stage for Cal’s final heroics.
Kazemi had 14 rebounds and six points in the first half, and Emory sparked Oregon early after Cal scored the first six points of the game.
The senior forward came off the bench to score nine points in a 16-2 run that put the Ducks up 16-8 at the 10:18 mark.
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