The California Golden Bears were dead in the water. Despite shooting lights out for most of the second half, they couldn't stop the UCLA Bruins either inside in the paint or outside behind the three point arc. Cal was trading twos for threes on too many possessions, as their 41-35 deficit widened to 73-59 after Tyler Honeycutt nailed the final of his four three pointers with four minutes to go.
Then Markhuri Sanders-Frison nailed a shot. 12 point game. Malcolm Lee fouled Allen Crabbe for two free throws; Lee, who had held Crabbe to four points the entire game, had fouled out. Crabbe hits two free throws. Ten point game. Honeycutt throws a lazy bounce pass to Cal's Richard Solomon, leading to a fastbreak layup for Crabbe. Eight point game. UCLA's Lazeric Jones and Cal's Harper Kamp trade points. Seven point game. Jones turns the ball over to Gutierrez. Five point game. UCLA though makes three free throws in a row to make it an eight point lead with a minute left.
But it's not over. Richard Solomon dunks the ball with 50 seconds left. Six point game. UCLA can't inbound the ball and are out of timeouts, so they get called for a five second violation. Crabbe hits a jumper four seconds later. Four point game. Honeycutt turns the ball over again to Solomon running down the court, and Solomon gets fed by Crabbe for another dunk to make it a two point game with thirty seconds left.
After Jones and Crabbe trade points to keep it at a two point game, Jones misses one of two free throws to make it a three point game. Crabbe then nails a three with thirteen seconds left on an assist from Jorge Gutierrez to tie the game. So to recap, after scoring 23 points in 200 seconds (and 13 points in the final 50), Cal manages to tie the game up with UCLA at 84. Crabbe led the way with 13 of those points, including nine of the last thirteen and the game-tying three (the first Cal had made all day).
Tyler Honeycutt then attempted a wild jumper that Kamp defended very well that clanked off the iron, and Cal looked like they'd have overtime in their grasp...except no one blocked out Reeves Nelson, who came in for the putback tap-in with barely any time left. Comeback dashed, and a brutal loss after a valiant run by the Bears.
Wild, dramatic and heartbreaking all at once. That was what Cal's loss to UCLA was like.
For more on the game, head on over to the California Golden Blogs (for Cal perspective) or Bruins Nation (for UCLA perspective).