By Morris Phillips

BERKELEY, CA–Six consecutive losses didn’t leave Cal resigned to a seventh.

Instead the Bears battled visiting Utah in a tense second half only to miss a potential game-winning three with a second remaining and a critical free throw after Andre Kelly was fouled grabbing an offensive rebound with 0.7 remaining.

Kelly missed the first–then while trying to miss the second intentionally–converted, preventing the home team from coming up with a miraculous tip-in for the win.

“We had a tip-in play ready to go,” coach Mark Fox said. “It’s just hard to intentionally miss.”

The Bears trailed by ten at the half only to tie the game at 50, then lead 57-55 with 8:48 remaining. The Utes responded with the game’s next six points and never trailed again. But with Cal trailing 75-68 and 37 seconds remaining, the Bears didn’t quit.

Grant Anticevich’s steal led to Matt Bradley hitting two free throws to bring Cal within 75-70 with 33 seconds to go. After Timmy Allen made one of two from the line for Utah, Kelly followed his own miss and scored with 17 seconds left.

Allen was fouled again, but missed both free throws and Bradley’s layup got Cal within 76-74 with six seconds. Bradley was the trigger man on the potential game-winner setup by the Utes’ botched inbounds pass, but it rattled out.

Fox appeared to display displeasure with the referees after Utah paraded to the line in the final four minutes, in which they didn’t attempt a single shot from the floor. The Utes made nine of the first ten from the line to build a seven-point lead, but missed three of the next four free throw attempts to open the door for Cal.

Quite frankly, we got beat at the free throw line,” Fox said. “And that’s a hard place to defend”

The Bears showed tremendous character in making game of it, but put themselves in a hole by allowing Utah to shoot 58 percent in the first half. Also Utes’ reserve guard Ian Martinez was hard to handle, scoring 16 points, including nine in the final six minutes.

“My mentality is to just go out there and be helpful to the team however they need me,” said Martinez.

Allen led Utah with 18 points, and never came out the game, playing all 40 minutes. The junior forward wasn’t flawless however with five turnovers and the three late misses from the line.

The Bears led 31-30 in the first half only to see the Utes score 12 of the final 13 points before the break.

Bradley had 20 points to lead Cal (7-15, 2-13). Anticevich added 18 and Kelly 17. The Bears’ 31-21 edge on the boards was negated by 14 turnovers and 23 fouls committed.

“I told the team it’s not the last 30 seconds you stay up at night thinking about. It’s the first 39 and a half minutes. There’s a couple of mistakes in there we need to clean up,” Fox said.

The Bears host Colorado on Saturday at 7pm.