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California’s Justin Cobbs, left, hits the game-winning shot as he is defended by Oregon’s Johnathan Loyd (10) during Thursday night’s game in Eugene. California won 48-46.

California’s Justin Cobbs, left, hits the game-winning shot as he is defended by Oregon’s Johnathan Loyd (10) during Thursday night’s game in Eugene. California won 48-46.
Brian Davies / The (Eugene) Register-Guard

Ducks fall to Bears

By The Associated Press
Published: February 22. 2013 4:00AM PST

EUGENE — 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, two 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 a 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 five-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.

Also on Thursday:

No. 6 Duke 88

Virginia Tech 56

BLACKSBURG, Va. — Seth Curry scored 19 of his 22 points in the first half as Duke opened a 20-point lead and sent Virginia Tech to its ninth consecutive loss.

Colorado 60

Utah 50

BOULDER, Colo. — Spencer Dinwiddie scored 13 points and had a key block in the late going, helping Colorado pull away for a victory over Utah.

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