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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted at 11:30 p.m., Thursday, January 22, 2009

CBKB: Obama's brother-in-law returns to lead Beavers to upset over Cal

Associated Press

BERKELEY, Calif. — Craig Robinson began his week in the Washington, D.C., attending the historic inauguration of his brother-in-law, President Barack Obama.

By the time Robinson returned to the West Coast, Oregon State's first-year coach was admittedly worn out from the festivities but ready to get back to work.

So were the Beavers.

Roeland Schaftenaar scored a career-high 22 points, Calvin Hayes hit a couple key 3-pointers in the second half and Oregon State allowed just one basket over the final nine minutes on the way to a 69-65 win over California on Thursday night.

Robinson, whose sister is First Lady Michelle Obama, flew to the nation's capital earlier this week for the presidential inauguration and missed one of his team's practices before rejoining the Beavers (7-10, 2-4 Pac-10) in time for their first win since beating USC to open the Pac-10 season.

When he walked out onto the court at Haas Pavilion prior to Thursday night's game against California, Robinson was greeted with a warm reception and heavy applause by the Golden Bears fans.

"I guess I can say this now, Tuesday was really something special," Robinson said. "But for those guys in the locker room, to come and play the way they did on the week of distractions they had, that shows a heck of amount of maturity and it shows a heck of amount of confidence. I can't be more proud of those guys."

Haynes finished with 21 points, including a layup with 20.7 seconds left to seal the win for Oregon State. Haynes also had seven rebounds for the Beavers. Oregon State had lost six straight regular season games to the Bears before rallying from 11 points down midway through the second half and handing California its second straight loss.

Jerome Randle had 20 points, eight assists and six rebounds for the Bears (15-4, 4-2), who fell out of first-place tie in the Pac-10 with UCLA.

"If you want to simplify it, we went 2-for-11 the last seven minutes of the game and we weren't able to get stops," Bears coach Mike Montgomery said. "Put very simply, it was no more complex than that. The last 10 minutes of the game they did everything they needed to do and we didn't."

Jamal Boykin recorded his third double-double of the season with 15 points and 10 rebounds and Patrick Christopher added 15 points for California, which had won nine straight before losing to Stanford on Saturday.

This one was even more difficult for the Bears to deal with.

They led 62-51 with 9:37 left to play and were getting dominant performances from Randle and Christopher.

But Schaftenaar scored four straight points and Haynes followed with eight of his own, including consecutive 3-pointers, to give the Beavers the lead.

"Emotions were high and I think we had a lot at stake and we came out gunning," Haynes said. "We wanted to get it down to a close game and what are we going to do? Are we going to break down or keep fighting? It comes down to what we do in practice. This isn't anything new."

Randle sank a 3-pointer to give the Bears a 65-63 lead but Cal went scoreless after that, while Oregon State pulled away. Randle limped off the court with 2:49 left after crashing to the floor away from the play, but later returned and finished the game. He was diagnosed with a hip pointer and will be reevaluated later.

"He's going to be sore tomorrow I'm sure," Montgomery said. "He got hit pretty good."

It's the Beavers' first win against the Bears since the 2005-06 season and capped a remarkable week for Robinson. His team lost to Washington by 26 points last Saturday, he boarded a plane for the inauguration shortly after then caught a cross-country flight back to the West Coast where he held a brief practice with his players prior to their game against Cal.

"Tuesday was a special, special day for me, for my family, for the country and the reception the students gave me almost choked me up as much as Tuesday did," Robinson said. "Cal students are going to have a spot in my heart. They didn't have to do that. It was a fantastic gesture from a bunch of kids."