CAL RALLY SUBDUES CINCINNATI COMEBACK KIDS: NO. 24 BEARS STARE ADVERSITY IN THE FACE AND COME UP WINNERS ON ROAD. By RICHARD SKINNER Special to the Mercury News CINCINNATI -- Cal's young men's basketball team faced the kind of scenario in which it had to grow up fast -- and Wednesday night, it did. The Golden Bears had let an eight-point second-half lead slip away against 13th-ranked Cincinnati and found themselves trailing 61-53 with 12 minutes, 41 seconds to play. But instead of folding against a team that had won 50 of its previous 55 games at home, Cal rallied for an 89-76 victory at the Shoemaker Center. It was a second straight victory over a nationally ranked team for the Golden Bears, who defeated then-No. 11 Minnesota 82-75 Saturday. Cal, ranked 24th, improved to 6-0 -- its best start since the 1967-'68 season, when the Golden Bears won their first seven. Cal used a 16-2 run in a span of four minutes to transform a 61-53 deficit into a 69-63 lead with 8:26 to play. Cincinnati got no closer than four thereafter. ''I thought it was good the guys responded to that and kept their poise on the road,'' Cal Coach Todd Bozeman said. Senior swingman Monty Buckley continued to emerge from the shadows of Jason Kidd and Lamond Murray. Buckley keyed the decisive run by scoring the first seven points. He finished with 22 points and six rebounds. ''It may take a year, and it may take a couple of years (for people to forget about Kidd and Murray),'' Buckley said. ''I don't know what people go on to judge a good team and a bad team, but it doesn't really matter what other people say. As long as we're playing hard and playing together, then (there's) not too many teams we can't beat. This helps us confidencewise, especially for the young guys.'' Bozeman substituted liberally, as he has done all season, and Cincinnati seemed to tire as the second half progressed. The Bearcats were also in foul trouble on their front line much of the second half, and forward Keith Gregor and center Art Long both fouled out. Cincinnati also lost reserve forward Bobby Brannen in the first half to a concussion. Freshmen Jelani Gardner played a key role in the 16-2 spurt, scoring five points and making a steal and an outlet pass to K.J. Roberts for a layup. Gardner finished with 14 points, three assists, three rebounds and two steals; Roberts had 16 points. Bozeman said that during the 16-2 run, the Golden Bears did a better job attacking Cincinnati's trapping defenses and did a better job of using their own traps. ''I knew they were going to make a run, and I thought we got too emotional and we weren't sticking to our game plan,'' he said. ''The guys then calmed down, and we went back to doing the things we did earlier in the game, which was try and look for the easy buckets against the traps.'' Sophomore guard Randy Duck also played a key role for the Golden Bears, limiting Cincinnati's leading scorer, LaZelle Durden, to seven points, on 2-of-14 shooting. Durden entered the game averaging a team-high 22.8 points. Cal trailed only once in the first half, at 2-0, and was tied only once, at 11-11 after it had taken an 11-4 lead. Throughout the first half, the Golden Bears were able to force Cincinnati into turnovers. The Bearcats had 15 miscues in the half. After Cincinnati tied it 11-11 on freshman forward Danny Fortson's second straight rebound basket, Roberts scored five points to key an 11-4 run that gave the Golden Bears a 22-15 lead with 9:44 left in the half. Cincinnati got no closer than five the rest of the half and Cal led by as many as 11 before settling for a 45-38 halftime lead. The Golden Bears pulled ahead 49-41 less than two minutes into the second half, before Fortson, who finished with 18 points, and senior forward Curtis Bostic, who also scored 18, combined for 14 points in a 20-4 Bearcats run that gave them a 61-53 lead with 12:41 to play. Cal then went on its decisive spurt.