Motivated and rested Arizona Wildcats roll Cal Bears 100-81 in Pac-12 opener at Berkeley

BERKELEY, Calif. – The Arizona Wildcats had one day to get it right, and coach Tommy Lloyd had every right to be nervous.

Nearly a week before Arizona tore apart Cal 100-81 Friday at Haas Pavilion, the Wildcats were coming off a soul-draining double-overtime loss to Florida Atlantic in Las Vegas. That was the finale to a brutal end of nonconference play, when Arizona played four straight Top 15 Kenpom teams and lost twice.

Then Lloyd gave them a three-day holiday break. They returned late Tuesday night, then began practices Wednesday …and pretty much squandered that one away.

“Our practice in on (Wednesday) probably set basketball back 20 or 30 years,” Lloyd said. “It just wasn't very good. I just told our guys, `Come on, we’ve got to step it up.’ “

They had only Thursday left to do it. But that proved more than enough.

Lloyd said the Wildcats practiced well Thursday before leaving for the Bay area, and that the effort likely carried over to Friday, when UA steamrollered Cal with a 20-2 run that began just three minutes into Friday’s game and never faced a serious challenge from there.

After the game, sitting in front of a makeshift hallway weight room near the Wildcats’ locker room, Lloyd was asked if that early run was a result of motivation from the FAU loss, from the chance to start Pac-12 play in a dominant fashion or maybe just because of the extra rest.

“All I know is we had to take three days off,” Lloyd said. “We needed them.”

It helped, Lloyd said, to have a game plan that assistants Steve Robinson and Ken Nakagawa drew up. It was partly this, according to center Oumar Ballo: Stop Cal early before the Bears get going.

Lloyd said he also noticed Cal’s fast starts – even though the Bears are now 4-8 – and challenged his guys to counter that with a strong start of their own.

It worked better than maybe anyone could have imagined. In the first half, the Wildcats used their 20-2 run early to take a 26-5 lead, shutting down the Bears’ much-improved offense, and coasted into halftime with a 54-26 lead. Cal shot just 26.5% from the field before halftime.

“We knew Cal was a team that always gets up big in the first four to 10 minutes,” Ballo said. “We had to come out and try to outscore them and make some stops to make them uncomfortable on the offensive end.”

Or, as Lloyd put it, the Wildcats played the way they should play.

“We have high standards and we wanted our guys to respond from our last game,” Lloyd said. "I thought we did that in the first half.

“I think we always want to be aggressive. Our guys came out and played with spirit and energy and and kind of really took it to them right away.”

Cal coach Mark Madsen and standout forward Jaylon Tyson pretty much agreed. Madsen said the Wildcats “ran it down our throats,” while Tyson made no excuses.

“Nobody was surprised,” Tyson said. “Everybody knew Arizona was a Top 4 team. We knew. We just had to come out and execute the game plan.”

The Bears actually did show some life in the second half. They outscored  Arizona 55-46 in the second half, shooting 55.9% after halftime.

Suddenly, the Arizona defense wasn't so intimidating.

“It can be a lot of things,” Lloyd said of the second-half difference. “They got more much more aggressive getting downhill. I don't know if we lacked some effort or energy. That maybe happens in those scenarios. Not that it's acceptable, but human nature is a powerful thing and on both sides. So I'm giving Cal credit for playing a really good second half.”

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Still, it wasn’t nearly enough for the Bears. Cal never cut UA’s lead to under 20 until the final three minutes, long after Lloyd began emptying his bench.

In fact, the only real drama in the second half came from a pair of technical fouls.

After Grant Newell hit a 3-pointer to cut UA’s lead to 88-68 with 5:27 left, Cal guard Devin Askew picked up a technical foul after appearing to disagree with a foul called against him when he tussled with UA center Motiejus Krivas for a rebound.

Earlier in the half, UA guard Caleb Love picked up a technical during an much more memorable sequence. First he posterized Cal’s Gus Larson with a dunk, then picked up the technical foul on an exchange with Larson, who picked up a personal foul on the play.

Love was not available for comment after the game but Lloyd said he didn’t think Love said anything verbally – but indicated that his body language may have.

“It's hard in this day and age,” Lloyd said. “If you make a highlight play and even look at the guy you had the highlight against, it's like an automatic technical.

"Which I get -- referees have to do their job. I don't know how many we've had in my three years here, but we've had a highlight dunk (before) that's followed up by an immediate technical foul. We have to make the adjustment on that because I don't think the referees are going to.”

Love finished with 22 points to lead Arizona (10-2) in scoring, while Ballo posted his third straight double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Krivas added 18 off the bench, two points below his season high.

After going with just eight players during the Wildcats’ past three games, Lloyd said he was “committed to playing more guys,” and inserted sophomore wing Filip Borovicanin as the ninth player in the first half.

Borovicanin had six points, three assists and three rebounds over 14 minutes played over both halves.

“It felt great, definitely,” Borovicanin said. “I appreciate coach Tommy for giving me a chance and I hope that I earned some other chances during the season.”

Arizona basketball seen and heard: On Larsson's exploring parents, Jeffries' commute and rally towels

Seen and heard in and around Haas Pavilion in Berkeley, California, Friday: Stateside from Sweden, Pelle Larsson's parents, Christian and Frida, explore Phoenix, Las Vegas and now the Bay Area watching their son and the No. 4 Wildcats

Photos: No. 4 Arizona Wildcats blast Cal to open Pac-12 play, 100-81