Bears’ comeback falls short in final minute
Cal’s men were down by as many as 14 to UCLA early in the second half at Haas Pavilion, but nevertheless managed to take the lead three times down the stretch. But the Bears couldn’t seal the deal, and the Bruins picked up their fifth straight win with a 6160 victory.
Cal (10-14, 6-7 Pac-12) missed a chance at its first three-game winning streak in more than two years and an opportunity to go over .500 in conference play.
In the first half, the Bears committed eight turnovers, which led to 13 UCLA points. The Bruins were up 35-24 at the break. Cal head coach Mark Madsen said his team was “just a step slow” in the opening 20 minutes.
Madsen said the Bruins “had all the energy, and we just were sluggish. Give UCLA credit: They came out and blitzed us. They dominated the first half.
“We came back fighting in the second half, but it wasn’t enough to get over the hump.”
The Bears trailed 40-26 with 16:37 remaining and were down 50-41 with less than eight minutes left. They then went on a 10-0 run. Fardaws Aimaq made a beautiful bounce pass to Jaylon Tyson for a dunk along the baseline. Tyson then assisted on 3pointers by Aimaq and Jalen Celestine. That made it 50-49, Bruins, with just less than six minutes to go. Nearly three minutes later, Tyson capped the run with a jumper that gave Cal a 5150 edge. It was the Bears’ first lead since they were up 7-6.
It was 53-53 with just more than a minute remaining. Adem Bona then blocked Tyson’s layup attempt. Aimaq got the rebound, and Bona rejected his shot. Aimaq recovered and dropped home a bucket that put Cal on top by two.
After a UCLA timeout, Bona got the ball on the left block and he scored from inside despite a foul on Aimaq with 50.4 seconds left. Bona hit the ensuing freethrow try, and the Bruins were up one.
Aimaq followed a Tyson miss to give the Bears a 5756 edge but Dylan Andrews answered with a jumper with 24 seconds to go that put the Bruins (1311, 8-5) ahead to stay.
Tyson missed on a tough drive, and Lazar Stefanovic connected on both ends of a 1-and-1 with 16.4 seconds left.
Celestine then had a good look at what would have been a tying trey, but it was off the mark. UCLA’s Sebastian Mack made one of two foul shots for a four-point lead, meaning Celestine’s 3pointer just before the buzzer wasn’t enough.
Cal edged USC 83-77 in overtime on Wednesday night.
“I thought we were capable of sweeping the L.A. schools. I thought we were very capable of doing that,” said Celestine, who had 13 points. “So the fact that we fell short, it stings, for sure.”
Tyson had a game-high 16 points and Aimaq put together his conferenceleading 16th double-double with 12 points and 12 boards. UCLA got 13 points from Bona and 12 each from Andrews and Stefanovic, who pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds.
Madsen said the Bears need “to get much more tough, get much more physical” than they were Saturday, when he thought UCLA corralled the majority of the loose balls.
“This is an opportunity for us to drill down and drill in and tighten up because we have a tough road trip next week, going up to Washington State and Washington,” Madsen said. “And I can tell you we are going to be ready to go and we’re going to dial in to these things that impacted the result today.”
Briefly: Unless the teams meet in the Pac-12 tournament next month, Saturday’s game marked the end of the Cal-UCLA series for the foreseeable future, with the Bruins headed to the Big Ten next season and the Bears to the ACC. UCLA leads the series 147-104. The series began in the 1920-21 season. … The announced crowd at Haas was 9,280, about 2,500 shy of a sellout.