PULLMAN The value of Mark Hendrickson goes without saying. Washington State is a decidedly better basketball team with him in the lineup.
But he isn't peerless.
Shareef Abdur-Rahim, though, may be.
The freshman phenom upstaged a surprisingly effective Hendrickson in his return from debilitating broken hand, personally routing 25th-ranked California to an 87-79 Pac-10 triumph over the Cougars Thursday evening at Beasley Coliseum.
Abdur-Rahim, the conference's leading scorer, rang up 32 points one shy of his career record, and snared a personal-best 18 rebounds as the Bears won out in a physically grueling, foul-charged contest played before 9,123 fans.
Hendrickson, seeing his first action since sustaining a fracture in his shooting hand in a victory over San Jose State on Dec. 27, responded with a season-high 27 points, including eight straight for the Cougars during a last-ditch spurt inside the final 31/2 minutes. He also grabbed 14 rebounds, 10 of which came in the first half.
But the pivotal factor was unquestionably Abdur-Rahim, who likewise obscured the activation of teammate Tremaine Fowlkes, the 1995 Pac-10 Freshman of the Year who missed Cal's first 14 games due to an NCAA-imposed suspension for prohibited contact with an agent.
"We just couldn't stop the big guy," WSU coach Kevin Eastman said in reference to Abdur-Rahim, a 6-foot-10 forward who converted putbacks on six of his nine offensive rebounds. "I've only been around (the Pac-10) for two years, but he's the best I've seen."
Cal, playing without point guard Jelani Gardner, who did not make the trip due to a touch of flu, followed the second-half initiative of Abdur-Rahim and guard Ed Gray (21 points) to establish leads as big as 10 points, the last time 68-58 with 61/2 minutes to play.
Despite uncharacteristically tepid free throw shooting WSU was 10 of 18 from the line in the second half and 14 of 25 for the game the Cougs clawed back, largely on Hendrickson's production. Scoring on deft pivot moves and free throws, the 6-9 senior almost single-handedly cut the margin to a workable degree and, with a heavily-defensed banker, made it 78-75 Cal with 54.4 seconds remaining.
A Carlos Daniel putback with 25.5 seconds left got the Cougs within two, 81-79, but , the Bears adequately efficient free throw shooting (5 of 8) inside the final minute sealed the outcome.
Cal, 11-5 overall moves to 6-1 in Pac-10 play and into a first-place tie with UCLA. Washington State, mired in its worst conference start of the '90s, slips to 1-5 and 8-6.
"We felt good about the fact there was snow on the ground when we got here," said Cal coach Todd Bozeman, whose ballclub was travel-delayed by the region's recent snowstorms and didn't reach Pullman until 2 a.m. Thursday. "The last time we won here (in 1993) there was snow, so that was good to see."
Also certainly pleasing to Bozeman was the foul trouble suffered by Isaac Fontaine, WSU's leading scorer. The senior guard managed just 10 points in 19 minutes, and fouled out with 4:36 to play.
WSU completes its home series with San Francisco Bay Area teams Saturday, playing host to Stanford at 3 p.m.