BERKELEY “”mdash; For Darren Collison, there was no other way to go out.
A nationally televised game in prime time with the ESPN College GameDay crew in attendance.
A Pac-10 road game in a hostile environment with sole possession of second place in the conference on the line.
A chance for the Bruins (22-7, 11-5 Pac-10) to complete a sweep of the Bay Area schools and push last weekend’s loss at home to Washington State further from people’s minds.
Playing in his final Pac-10 road game of his four-year UCLA career, including his record-tying 135 game as a Bruin, the senior guard ended the road portion of his career in spectacular fashion, scoring 16 of his game-high 22 points in the second half of the No. 22 Bruins’ 72-68 over the California Golden Bears (21-8, 10-6) Saturday night in front of 11,877 at Haas Pavilion.
“That’s exactly how I want to go out,” Collison said. “I had a great time at UCLA. Unfortunately, I won’t have any more road games as a UCLA Bruin.”
Throughout his career, Collison has been known to enjoy the challenges that playing on the road bring, almost relishing the opportunity. And on Saturday in what UCLA coach Ben Howland termed “the best win of the year,” it was Collison who made the big plays down the stretch to will the Bruins to victory.
After struggling in the first half offensively, scoring just six points on two-of-six shooting, Collison found his shooting touch in the second half to finish with 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting.
With 7:48 left in the second half and the Bruins down one, Collison drove to the basket for a layup to give the Bruins a 54-53 lead. On the next Bruin possession, Collison was able to penetrate again for another layup to extend the lead to three.
But the senior was not done. With 6:10 remaining, Collison drove to the basket for a layup and was fouled by Cal forward Theo Robertson. After watching the ball go in, Collison flexed his arms and stared coldly at the Cal student section before emitting a fierce scream. He made his free throw and gave the Bruins a 62-53 advantage.
“He was aggressive tonight,” said UCLA senior forward Josh Shipp, who finished with 12 points. “That’s the bottom line. When we needed him to get a basket, he went and got it.”
One particular fan of Collison was Cal head coach Mike Montgomery.
“That’s why he is what he is,” Montgomery said. “The ability to make a play in late clock is probably what separates UCLA from a lot of people. They’ve got such a tremendous amount of confidence in the ability to score late, particularly with Collison. I just think that Collison is such a clutch player, and he makes plays in critical situations. In late clock, he’s as good as there is.”
As if to add the icing to what had already been a tremendous game for him, Collison impressed the Haas Pavilion crowd with an acrobatic play. With 1:30 left in the game, Collison put up a twisting shot as the clock expired, giving the Bruins a 68-61 lead, and essentially sealing the game.
“He was a senior out there tonight and he led us,” Shipp said.
Following the game, Howland said he has come to expect big plays from Collison.
“He is our senior point guard and he could have left and gone to the NBA last year or the year before, and he wants to finish this last campaign off on a high note,” Howland said. “We definitely expect him to be the guy down the stretch that’s one of the guys for sure looking to make the big shots, and he did.”
For Collison, Saturday’s contest against Cal was a very different game than Thursday’s 76-71 win at Stanford. Against the Cardinal, Collison struggled offensively, scoring just seven points on 3-of-9 shooting.
“Today it was just my night,” Collison said. “It was just my night going. I really felt like I missed some easy bunnies in the first half, and I got it going in the second half. My teammates got me open and I capitalized.”
While the Pac-10 road games are finished, and a chance to claim sole possession of a fourth Pac-10 regular season is now impossible, Collison said there is a lot of work to be done.
“My goal is to win the national championship so I’m not done dreaming,” Collison said. “I hope it don’t stop, and I want to continue to look ahead.”