Reeves Nelson’s magic touch gives UCLA basketball the 86-84 win over Cal, despite a 49-point second half by the Golden Bears

All the fans were watching. All the coaches were watching. As Tyler Honeycutt’s shot went up, even most of the players were watching.

Reeves Nelson was running. He glided through the key and to the rim to tip-in Honeycutt’s miss with two seconds left to give UCLA a thrilling 86-84 victory over Cal.

The sophomore forward’s acrobatic play prevented what would have been an epic collapse on the part of the Bruins (12-6, 4-2 Pac-10), who squandered a double-digit second-half lead and saw the Bears (9-9, 2-4) tie the game at 84 with 10 seconds left.

“For him to not give up, to run the floor and get that finish, that was exciting,” UCLA coach Ben Howland said.

Honeycutt got off a fadeaway jumper in the closing seconds. The shot bounced off the back rim and gave Nelson enough time to sprint in from beyond the arc and through four Cal defenders on his way to the rim.

“It just popped in my head to run in on the offensive glass just in case he missed it,” Nelson said. “The ball came off on the right side and I just tipped it in.”

Allen Crabbe ““ the high-scoring Cal freshman who finished with 17 points ““ tied the game at 84 with a 3-pointer. Crabbe scored 13 of his points in the final 3:20 after UCLA junior guard Malcolm Lee ““ who hounded him the entire game ““ fouled out.

“It was real hard to not be able to do anything,” Lee said. “It seemed like everything just went so fast. We just have to keep playing defense.”

Back on its home court against one of its in-state rivals, UCLA came to play.

Well, for 38 minutes or so. The remainder of the game the Bruins spent throwing balls away and completely blowing a double-digit lead, and they needed superb timing from Nelson to escape.

Nelson scored a career-high 24 points, finished with a double-double and played an even bigger role than may have been anticipated after freshman center Joshua Smith left the game for good after a first half head-and-neck injury.

“I was just going to try and come out and do what I normally do,” Nelson said. “It worked for me.”

Cal came out playing a 2-3 zone that didn’t seem to faze UCLA, which shot over 48 percent in the first half en route to securing a 41-35 lead at the break. The Golden Bears tried switching between zone and man-to-man in the second half, but it did little to slow the hot-shooting Bruins.

Nelson wasn’t the only Bruin with a record scoring night. Junior guard Lazeric Jones also poured in a career-high 24 points and hit five free throws in the final minute to help secure the win.
“He’s making plays down the stretch,” Howland said of his point guard.

Smith did not start the game, the fifth time this year he has come off the bench. Instead, redshirt freshman center Anthony Stover received his first career start. Smith took a hard fall on the defensive end 5:39 into the half and left the game holding his head. The freshman later returned for a brief stint, but was subbed out for good with 8:57 left.

At halftime, he was evaluated and acknowledged some neck soreness and stiffness. He will be re-evaluated Friday to determine his availability for Saturday’s game against Stanford.

In the end, as efficient as UCLA was offensively, Cal’s late surge was almost enough to steal the victory. The Bears shot 72 percent in the second half.

“They did what they had to,” Nelson said. “They started hitting big shots. It all added up to them coming back. We’ll learn from this and we’re just happy we got the win.”