Oumar Ballo didn’t miss a shot from the field and had 22 points and 13 rebounds as No. 11 Arizona rolled past Cal 91-65 Thursday night in Tucson, Ariz.
The senior 7-footer consistently established low-post position and made all eight of his shot attempts as he posted his seventh double-double of the season. Keshad Johnson added 15 points for Arizona (16-5, 7-3 Pac-12), while KJ Lewis scored 14 off the bench.
Cal (8-13, 4-6) trailed by 20 points at halftime and never got closer than 15 points in the second half. Jalen Celestine scored a team-high 13 points.
The Bears’ Jaylon Tyson, who entered as the Pac-12’s leading scorer (20.6 ppg), had a double-double in an otherwise difficult night. He missed his first seven shots and didn’t score until there were 47 seconds left in the first half. Tyson finished with 10 points on 5 of 14 shooting, and 10 rebounds.
Arizona, whose lead ballooned to 29 points late in the game, was the more physical team from the start. The Wildcats had a 51-32 rebounding edge and took 30 free-throw attempts. Cal was just 6 of 9 from the line.