By Morris Phillips

The game separating the Bears and  Bruins near the top of the Pac-12 standings seemed a lot bigger on Wednesday night.

Hot-shooting UCLA dusted Cal 86-66 to strengthen their hold on second place behind Arizona.  Cal missed nine of their first 12 shots, turned in a ragged defensive performance and trailed by double digits for the final 30 the minutes of the ballgame.

“We want to stay in the conference race,” UCLA coach Steve Alford said.  “We had a chance tonight to put another team two games behind us with five left and we had a chance to get another road win.”

UCLA won for the seventh time in their most recent eight games and stayed within a game of Arizona atop the conference.  Cal fell for the fifth time in their last eight and once again fell behind early.

“They were certainly better than us tonight.  I don’t think there’s any question about that,” Coach Mike Montgomery said.

Jordan Adams led the Bruins with 28 points and Kyle Anderson added 11 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. Adams made 12 of his 19 shots and had five steals.

Cal was led by Jordan Mathews with 16 points off the bench.  The Bears poisoned their effort by allowing 44 first half points and by shooting just 34 percent.

The Bears (17-9, 8-5) host USC on Sunday afternoon at Haas Pavilion.