UCLA holds on to beat Cal 61-60 as Bruins continue their Pac-12 climb
Adem Bona scored 13 points and Dylan Andrews and Lazar Stefanovic each scored 12 and UCLA won its fifth straight holding off Cal for a 61-60 win on Saturday.
Jaylon Tyson scored 16 points, Jalen Celestine 13 and Fardaws Aimaq scored 12 and grabbed 12 rebounds for Cal before fouling out.
Sebastian Mack made 1 of 2 foul shots for the Bruins with four seconds left for a 61-57 advantage. Celestine made a 3-pointer with .1 seconds left that made it a one-point game but the Bruins' inbounded the ball to end it.
Both teams struggled to shoot as they each missed eight foul shots.
Aimaq's put back off a Tyson miss gave Cal its last lead at 57-56 with 36 seconds remaining. Andrews' jumper 12 seconds later gave UCLA the lead for good.
UCLA led 35-24 at halftime and it maintained the double-digit lead for the first six minutes of the second half before Cal got back into contention.
The Golden Bears outscored UCLA 12-6 and got within 47-41 on a layup from Tyson with 10:08 left. Berke Buyuktuncel made a 3 for UCLA for a nine-point lead before Cal scored eight straight reducing its deficit to 50-49 following a 3 from Celestine with 5:55 left. The score stayed that way until Tyson's basket with 3:05 left gave Cal its first lead since four minutes into the game.
With the win, the Bruins (13-11, 8-5 Pac-12) moved into a third-place tie with Oregon. UCLA hosts Colorado on Thursday.
Cal (10-14, 6-7) travels to Pullman, Washington, to take on Washington State on Thursday.
