By Morris Phillips

Going 2 ½ months between road wins isn’t ideal, but the Cal Bears probably didn’t even notice the lengthy wait after they survived the frantic, final minutes on Thursday night at the Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle.

Leading by 10 points with three minutes remaining, the Bears saw their lead dwindle to a point, before pulling out a critical 78-75 victory over the fast-sliding Washington Huskies. The matchup between the Pac-12’s sixth and seventh-best teams promised to decide plenty in terms of the Pac-12’s NCAA tournament prospects, but things remained up in the air until Matisse Thybulle’s missed two free throws with four seconds remaining that would have allowed the Huskies to cap a furious rally and tie the game.

“We gave up a couple of threes in the corner,” Coach Cuonzo Martin said in trying to explain UW’s rally that almost sent the Bears back to the team bus in a state of shock. “When you miss free throws, they get their heads up. If you have a 10-point lead, it has to go to 15. You can’t miss free throws. They make plays. It changes the ball game. It changes the momentum and that is what happened.”

After dropping their first five conference road contests—all by fewer than 10 points—the Bears wake up Friday with a much clearer NCAA complexion. Cal won at Washington for the fourth straight year by riding big performances from their freshmen, Jaylen Brown and Ivan Rabb, and surviving a rash of missed free throws late. Now, a win on Sunday at Washington State will propel the Bears back into the race for the Pac-12 regular season title.

Brown led the Bears with 23 points, and Rabb took advantage down low with 8 points and 14 rebounds.   Cal’s bench outclassed Washington’s with 38 points and 24 rebounds, but the Bears still needed to survive UW’s ability to block shots, force turnovers along with their late surge.

“We missed a lot of easy shots,” UW Coach Lorenzo Romar admitted. “We couldn’t get the ball in the basket.”

Cal limited the Huskies to 33 percent shooting for the game, and held a healthy 50-42 edge on the glass. But in a game this important, those disparities didn’t deter Washington, who was looking to win for only the third time in their last nine games. Washington’s 16-5 surge in the first half left the game tied at the half, and with the Bears near collapse, they were just three points better than UW after halftime.

“We did a lot that they we were supposed to do and we let, what, 12 plus free throws on the board,” UW’s Dejounte Murray said. “You give us at least four or five of those, and it gives us the win.”

Marquese Chriss led UW with 17 points, and Murray added 14, but missed six of ten free throw opportunities.

The ragged nature of the game was no surprise given the team’s different struggles and their youth. Cal started two freshmen, and UW started three. The Huskies had been 5-1 in conference play and in first place before their struggles commenced with a series of narrow losses. Now UW needs a miraculous run to avoid a fifth-straight season without an NCAA bid.

“We have to bring it,” Romar said. “We don’t have very many opportunities to go out and not come out on top right now.”

The Bears resume play in Pullman on Sunday at 5:30pm. Washington State has dropped 12 straight games after a loss at home to Stanford on Thursday.