Oumar Ballo scores 22 and grabs 13 boards as UA wins 15th straight over Golden Bears
TUCSON — 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.
Ballo quickly got the seven points he needed to eclipse 1,000 on his UA career. He had earlier this season passed the 1,000-point mark on his college career which stretches over stints at both Gonzaga and Arizona. He’s the 54th player to reach the 1,000-point club at UA.
Keshad Johnson added 15 points for Arizona (16-5, 7-3 Pac-12), while KJ Lewis scored 14 off the bench.
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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.
Caleb Love had 12 points, seven rebounds and four assists for Arizona.
Arizona completed the sweep of the season series and has won 15 consecutive games in the series, including 12 in a row by double digits.
The start of the game was similar to the teams’ matchup in Berkeley, Calif., on Dec. 29, when the Wildcats led by as many as 31 points in the first half en route to a 100-81 victory.
On Thursday night, Arizona made seven of its first 10 shots and led 16-6 at the first media timeout. The lead grew to 23 in the first half before the Wildcats took a 48-28 advantage into halftime.
Arizona shot 56.3 percent in the first half (18 of 32), while Cal was at 35.5 percent (11 of 31).
–Field Level Media
