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Las Vegas • It was basketball on a chess board: Tweak for tweak, sub for sub, shot for shot.
The Utes were running out of time for a final move — they only had 4.3 seconds before the Golden Bears slipped out with a win.
So Utah sent its speediest guard to catch them.
It took all of the 4.3 seconds for Lorenzo Bonam to drive coast-to-coast for a lay-up that bobbled in before the buzzer and sent his teammates flooding the floor around him as he sent them to overtime, 70-all.
Pull-up jumper? Never even a thought.
"I run up and down the court all day," Bonam said. "I know how fast I can get up and down the court."
Given a second chance, the Utes seized it, riding free throw shooting and a 29-point night from Jakob Poeltl to an 82-78 win in overtime over the Golden Bears in a late finish at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
With the thrilling victory, the Utes (26-7) advanced to the Pac-12 Tournament final for the first time ever, earning a third chance to try to be top-seeded Oregon this season Saturday 8 p.m. MST on Fox Sports 1.
"Tomorrow's match-up? We have a game?" coach Larry Krystkowiak joked, as most of his players scrambled to the team bus to catch fitful sleep. "It's actually today."
Utah will try to turn around their season fortunes against the Ducks, who beat them by double digits twice earlier this season. The regular season champions sliced apart the Utes in the two meetings led by sophomore Dillon Brooks, who scored a combined 51 points against them.
Oregon has also knocked the Utes out of two of its last three conference tournaments, last year drilling a Joseph Young buzzer-beater to win it in the semifinals.
But Friday night — or what was left of it — gave Utah a little something to savor before the anticipated match-up between 1- and 2-seed. The Utes provided the second spectacular regulation finish of the day in the tournament, following on the heels of a 95-89 Oregon overtime win over Arizona.
Cal traded shots with Utah's free throws, but the Bears' Jabari Bird looked like he might have the final word. He scooped up a missed Jaylen Brown jumper and put it back in while drawing a foul. His free throw gave Cal a two-point lead with 4.3 seconds left.
It was time enough for Bonam, who hit the shot with not a moment to spare for the most critical of his 18 points.
In the overtime, Utah pulled ahead with points from Poeltl in the paint and at the line. The sophomore center had 5 points of Utah's 12 points in the final period, adding 11 rebounds in a star turn.
Kyle Kuzma gave a little breathing room with a lay-up with 12 seconds left in OT, and after Tyrone Wallace made a 3-pointer, Jordan Loveridge sealed the game with a pair of free throws with 5 seconds remaining. Cal's final shot ended in a miss.
Krystkowiak drew attention to Utah's 25 for 31 night on the free throw line — a key factor in the win.
"It feels really good," said Loveridge, who had 12 points, 10 rebounds and was 6 for 6 at the stripe. "We practice free throws every day, and we know there's no little things in basketball because games come down to things like this."
For the game, Utah held the Bears to under 43 percent shooting, and future first-round NBA pick Brown was 3 for 17 from the floor. Cal was only 3 for 12 in the overtime period.
For Utah's offense, Poeltl was the centerpiece, backing down Cal's bigs as the Golden Bears tried to play him one-on-one. While he started out 3 for 9, his power post moves ended up wearing down his defenders as he scored 19 points in the second half and overtime.
When the Utes couldn't count on much else during a slow stretch in the second half, they went to Poeltl. And as Poeltl finished more and more against one of the nation's toughest defenses, Utah began to establish Bonam's slashes to the rim.
"I knew I could make those shots," Poeltl said. "I missed a couple tough ones and I just kept going at them and trying to finish. Yeah, it worked out toward the end."
Bonam also finished strong, scoring all 18 in the second half. Even as Utah trailed by as much as seven — which in a slow, timeout-filled game felt like a lot — Krystkowiak said his team drew on a lot of self-confidence.
"It's March Madness at its finest," Krystkowiak said. "I'm just extremely proud of our guys for not giving in."
An initial salvo including three straight 3-pointers from three different Utes in the first minutes raised hopes that they would shoot their way and coast into the finals.
But it was a false flag: When the Utes took a 14-4 lead in the opening minutes, they then missed eight straight shots from the field as Cal scrambled back to a tie.
It set the muddy pace for the rest of the contest, in which the Utes shot 43.1 percent against one of the nation's best defenses. The Golden Bears slipped past ball screens and stayed in front of Utah's shooters, and eventually they started closing around Poeltl, too.
Senior point guard Tyrone Wallace showed how much he was missed, scoring 26 points and speeding along in transition. Wallace led a group the looked a half step faster that Utah's guards, propelling the Golden Bears to a 37-33 halftime lead.
Utah improved to 2-1 on the season series against the Bears, however, and are riding high on a 9-game winning streak. Their next task before Selection Sunday is to figure out an answer to the question they haven't been able to solve yet.
"We've got a great game plan," Krystkowiak said. "But we can't tell you about it."
Twitter: @kylegoon