BERKELEY, Calif. -- Arizona is back to its old winning ways on the road.
Channing Frye had 20 points and eight rebounds to lead the 13th-ranked Wildcats to their ninth straight victory, 87-67 over California on Thursday night in their first road game in 19 days.
Arizona struggled away from Tucson a year ago while posting just the fourth sub-.500 conference road record during coach Lute Olson's tenure at the school.
"We've always been a good road team, with the exception of last year," said Olson, whose team is 4-2 away from home this season. "We've been pretty much a good road team every year and I think we'll continue to do that. There's a lot more maturity with this team and they enjoy playing with one another. Defensively, you're going to have to work your tail off every time to get a shot."
Hassan Adams added 16 points and Ivan Radenovic had 14 points and seven rebounds for Arizona (12-2, 2-0 Pac-10). Mustafa Shakur and Chris Rodgers each had 10 points for the Wildcats.
The Wildcats had not played away from Tucson since a 48-43 win over Marquette on Dec. 18, but they will get a good dose of the road over the next two weeks. Three of Arizona's next five conference games are away from home, including Saturday at Stanford.
A year ago, the Cardinal and California handed Arizona a rare Northern California sweep, something the Wildcats made sure wouldn't happen again by handing the Bears just their 20th loss at Haas Pavilion since 1999.
Arizona led for most of the game but couldn't shake California until putting together an 18-4 run early in the second half. Frye sparked the spurt with seven points, including a short hook to cap it that gave the Wildcats a 56-44 lead. The 6-foot-11 center hit from all over the court, including his second 3-pointer of the season.
"He's as good a shooter as we have outside," Olson said. "What he did out there tonight is not a surprise. He does that in practice every day. He creates a lot of problems."
Frye was too much to handle for California (8-5, 1-2), which entered the game with the Pac-10's second-stingiest defense. The Bears had been allowing just 61.7 points a game but were no match for the Wildcats' tempo or depth.
California scored the first six points of the second half to take a 40-38 lead but was outscored by 22 points the rest of the way.
"I don't know if we were worn down but they had more energy than we did at the end of the game," said Richard Midgley, who led California with 14 points. "Obviously we felt we were right where we needed to be, but credit Arizona. They started hitting some big shots."
The Wildcats beat California despite getting very little production from leading scorer Salima Stoudamire. Stoudamire came into the game averaging 14.8 points but was held in check by Midgley, scoring just six points.
Arizona didn't seem to miss Stoudamire's scoring much, however, as Frye's 13 points and five rebounds helped stake the Wildcats to the 38-34 halftime lead.
California, which missed eight of its first 11 shots from the field, stayed close in the first half thanks to the shooting of Midgley, who had 12 points before halftime.
The Bears also got some help from Arizona, which continued to have problems handling the ball. The Wildcats turned the ball over on their first two trips down the floor and had 11 in the first half.
Rod Benson had 13 points and Dominic McGuire added 12 for California.
