Cal Basketball: Big Crowd Sees the Bears Lose a Thriller to UCLA

Bears rally from a 14-point, second-half deficit to take the lead,but the Bruins win by one point

Cal attracted another big crowd at Haas Pavilion on Saturday afternoon, and it helped the Bears rally from a big deficit to nearly pull out a win.  However, UCLA scored enough when it was needed to record a 61-60 victory over Cal.

Saturday's crowd of 9,280 did not quite match the sellout crowd of more than 11,000 the Bears had at Haas in Wednesday's overtime win over USC.  But it was enough to give the Bears a homecourt advantage, despite the sizable number of UCLA fans in the building.

Cal has drawn more than 8,000 for each of its past three home games, and all three have come down the the wire.  Cal won the previous two and almost pulled out the one against UCLA as well.

"It's amazing," Jalen Celestine said of the big crowd. "It's a lot easier to play when you have 10,000 people, 9,000, 11,000 people on your side. Hopefully they keep coming."

Cal trailed by 14 points with 18:43 left in the second half but rallied to take a 55-53 lead with 1:06 remaining on a short-range bucket by Fardaws Aimaq.

UCLA's Adem Bona converted a three-point play to put the Bruins up by one with 50.4 seconds to go, but Aimaq scored on a follow shot to give the Bears a one-point lead again with 45 seconds remaining.

Dylan Andrews made an 18-footer to put UCLA back ahead 58-57 with 25.3 seconds left, and when Cal failed to score on the following possession, the Bears fouled Lazar Stefanovic, who made two free throws with 16.4 seconds to go to make it a three-point game.

Celestine, Cal's best three-point shooter, got a good look from beyond the arc on Cal's ensuing possession, but it did not go down with 6.0 seconds remaining. Sebastian Mack made one of two free throws with 4.5 seconds left push the margin to four points and render Celestine's three-pointer at the buzzer meaningless.

It was a physical, defensive battle with the officials letting a lot of contact go.  As a result, neither team shot well. UCLA made just 36.2% of its shots, and Cal was just a little better at 39.6%. But the Bruins committed just seven turnovers to 11 for Cal and collected 13 offensive rebounds to nine for the Bears.

Ultimately, Cal's poor first half, which ended with the Bruins holding an 11-point lead, proved too much to overcome.

"They came out and punched us in the face, to be honest," Celestine said.

"We had a bad first half," Cal coach Mark Madsen said. "They had all the energy; we were sluggish. We came back fighting in the second half, but it wasn't enough. They made the plays when they had to be made."

Cal (10-14, 6-7 Pac-12) had won in last two games in a row and four of its last five games, but could not pull this one out.

UCLA (13-11, 8-5 Pac-12) has won five straight and seven of its last eight games. After a slow start to its season, UCLA is playing as well as anyone in the conference now.

"Disappointed," said Celestine," because I thought we were very capable of sweeping the L.A. schools. The fact that we fell short, it stings for sure."

Tyson led Cal with 16 points, while Bona had 13 to lead the Bruins. Aimaq got his 16th double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds, while Celestine finished with 13 points.  Jalen Cone, who scored 20 points in the win over USC, had just three points on 1-for-6 shooting, including 1-for-5 on three-point attempts.

Cal's 60 points matched its lowest point total of the season, but it was almost enough against the Bruins' tough defense.

Cal beat UCLA on the road 66-57 back on January 6, and was seeking its first sweep of UCLA since the 2011-12 season.

Cal and UCLA have played each other 251 times, with the first meeting taking place in the 1920-21 season. But Saturday may have been their final meeting for a long time as UCLA joins the Big Ten next season and Cal heads to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Cal's offense struggled in the first half, which ended with the Bruins holding an 11-point lead at 35-24.  It was the Bears' lowest-scoring first half of the season.

Cal took an early 7-4 lead as Tyson scored all of the Bears' points to that point.  But the Bruins then went on an 11-0 run and controlled things for the rest of the half.

Andrews led UCLA with 10 first-half points, and UCLA led by as many as 13 points with six minutes remaining in the first half.

Tyson had 10 points in the first half, but Cone was scoreless, and Aimaq had just two.

Cal shot 36.4% from the floor over the first 20 minutes, while UCLA shot 46.2%.

Now Cal must go on the road for seven of its final seven games.

Cover photo of Mark Madsen by Zachary BonDurant, USA TODAY Sports.

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