UCLA Basketball: Bruins Beat California, 79-65

UCLA basketball notched its sixth straight win over California on Thursday night, beating the Golden Bears 79-65.

The Bruins controlled the tempo and held the lead for much of the game, and despite a slow start — which saw the Bears rattle off a 6-0 run in the opening minutes — the Bruins managed to play at their pace on offense while Cal’s offense stood stagnant.

The Bruins took a 38-28 lead at halftime and held a double-digit lead for much of the second half. Cal, however, rallied late in the second period to pull within four of UCLA, trailing 61-57 with 6:36 left in the contest.

UCLA would respond with an 8-0 run and outscored Cal 18-8 the remaining six and a half minutes to pull out the victory at Pauley Pavilion in front of a crowd of around 9000.

This marks the sixth time UCLA has held an opponent to under 70 points in a contest in a defensive effort which saw the Bruins hold California to 39 percent shooting from the floor. Cal, however, did miss all eight of their three-point attempts, the second straight game that the Bears did not make a single shot from downtown.

Kyle Anderson led the Bruins in scoring and rebounds with a 19-point, 12-rebound performance which saw the 6’8” freshman go 5-for-8 from the field and 9-for-9 from the free throw line. Shabazz Muhammad followed closely with a 16-point effort, the first time Muhammad did not score 20 points in a game since the Bruins’ win over Texas nearly a month ago.

The Bruins are set to take on Stanford on January 5 at 12 p.m. PT.