By Morris Phillips

Cal and UCLA couldn’t point to this game as being their finest moment, but no doubt the Bruins’ moments lasted a little bit longer than those of the Bears on Sunday afternoon at Pauley Pavilion.

UCLA hung on to beat the Bears, 76-64 as Cal’s big, second half rally from down 19 points early in the second half fell short.

The Bears saw their unblemished Pac-12 record take a hit in Los Angeles with losses at USC and UCLA over the weekend.  In 80 minutes of basketball, the Bears never led and poor shooting stood out at the biggest culprit.  But with the Arizona schools coming to Berkeley this week, the Bears can point to their six-minute rally as a building block to recapturing their stature within the conference.

“After digging a hole, we finally started getting some stops,” Coach Mike Montgomery said of his Bears.  “We started getting out on the break and all of a sudden we came to life.  We have to have more people involved.  The ball has to move.”

The Bears shot 34 percent in the first half against UCLA, then committed three turnovers and missed their first four shots after the break.  Down 11 at the half, then down 51-32 with 15:25 remaining, the Bears finally showed some life.

A 20-4 surge brought Cal within three with 9:17 remaining, but that was as close as they would get.  UCLA responded with a basket from Bryce Alford and regained a double-digit lead on Jordan Adams’ bucket with 3:38 remaining.  The Bruins made 10 of 12 free throw attempts after that to hold on down the stretch.

“Our transition defense stepped up and we have to credit that for the win,” UCLA Coach Steve Alford said.  “When Cal got it down to only a three-point deficit, we made key plays to get back into a groove and give us some momentum.”

Freshman Jordan Mathews led Cal with 18 points.  Justin Cobbs added 14 points, and Richard Solomon had nine points and 14 rebounds.

David Wear led UCLA with a career-best 18 points and seven rebounds.  Kyle Anderson had 17 points and 12 rebounds for the Bruins.

Jabari Bird keyed the Cal surge with all of his 12 points in the rally.  Bird hadn’t done much since returning from his ankle injury but this outing might lead to better performances for the highly-touted freshman, but only if he can reconcile his three-point shooting.  Bird and sophomore forward Tyrone Wallace combined to miss 11 of their 12 3-point attempts as the Bears found no comfort from long distance.

The Bears (16-4, 5-2) return to Haas Pavilion on Wednesday night when they face the Arizona State Sun Devils at 8pm.