Late Rally Falls Short Against Utes

BERKELEY – The California men's basketball team battled back from a 10-point deficit late in the second half but came up short in a 60-58 loss to Utah at Haas Pavilion on Saturday afternoon.
 
Cal trailed for the final 33 minutes of the contest and dropped its second straight game following a road sweep of the Oregon schools last week.
 
Utah built a 32-24 lead at intermission and expanded it to 43-31 after Both Gach hit two free throws less than five minutes into the second half. Cal rallied and after Grant Anticevich hit a 3 and Jordan Shepherd scored a layup, the Golden Bears cut their deficit to 47-43. The Utes answered with six straight points, but Cal battled back by hitting eight straight from the free-throw line to make it 57-55 with :19 left. Lazar Stefanovic hit two free throws for Utah before Jalen Celestine hit a 3-pointer with five seconds left.
 
Jordan Shepherd was able to fire off a 3-point attempt at the buzzer but could not connect.
 
"At the end of the night we'll look back and realize the consequences of some little mistakes throughout the game were great," Cal head coach Mark Fox said. "We had some little mistakes that you look back (at) that were just back-breaking in a two-point loss."
 
Lars Thiemann scored a career-high 16 points and grabbed a season-best eight rebounds to lead Cal (11-17, 4-13). Shepherd, Jalen Celestine and Kuany Kuany each added 10 points. Cal went 19-21 at the free throw line.
 
The Utes (11-16, 4-13 Pac-12) shot 22 of 55 from the field (40%), hitting just 2 of 14 shots from beyond the 3-point arc. Marco Anthony paced Utah with 13 points.
 
UP NEXT
Cal faces rival Stanford at 5 p.m. PT on Saturday, Feb. 26 in Haas Pavilion. The game will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks.
 
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