Jan. 8, 2005
By GREG BEACHAM
AP Sports Writer
BERKELEY, Calif. - Ike Diogu had 25 points and seven rebounds, and Arizona State beat California 79-70 Saturday night for its 11th victory in 12 games.
Diogu, the Pac-10's leading scorer and rebounder, had his sixth straight 20-point game for the Sun Devils (13-2, 2-1), who finished strong in their first sweep of the conference's Bay Area road trip in 20 years. Arizona State snapped its 13-game losing streak against Stanford on Thursday night.
Steve Moore scored 18 points for the Sun Devils, who trailed at halftime but took the lead for good with a 12-0 run in three minutes midway through the second half. They shut down the undermanned Golden Bears with a simple 2-3 zone defense, and Kevin Kruger hit two big jumpers during the decisive run in Arizona State's second victory in its last nine meetings with Cal.
Rod Benson had 15 points and eight rebounds, and walk-on Martin Smith had a career-high 12 points and seven assists for the Bears (8-6, 1-3). But leading scorer Richard Midgley was limited to six minutes with a sprained right shoulder, and Cal's season-long scoring troubles only got worse.
Diogu punctuated another dominant game with a remarkable sequence. He blocked Benson's dunk attempt with brute force on one end, then hit a feathery fallaway jumper on the other end to give the Sun Devils a 70-60 lead with 3:38 to play.
His only real slip-ups came at the free throw line, where he hurt his 85.4 percent shooting on the season with a 7-for-10 performance.
Cal got within five points in the final minute, but Moore and Kruger made two free throws apiece. Kruger finished with 11 points.
Midgley, the Bears' English point guard, was held out of the starting lineup, but entered the game midway through the first half and immediately found Dominic McGuire for an alley-oop dunk. Midgley was hurt last week against Washington State, but the injury apparently worsened in Thursday's loss to Arizona.
Cal coach Ben Braun also shuffled his starting lineup, replacing Rod Benson and DeVon Hardin with David Paris and Kevin Langford. Braun was hoping to keep Hardin, his talented freshman center, out of foul trouble - but Hardin still got two quick fouls as soon as he entered the game, playing just three first-half minutes.
Arizona State has swept the Pac-10's Bay Area road trip just three times in school history, in 1980, 1981 and 1985.