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Berkeley, Calif. • The one man the Utes couldn't let slip past them managed one final misdirection.
As the Utah defense collapsed on a driving Charlie Moore, Jabari Bird snuck up behind them, and Moore's aim was true. Bird flushed an alley-oop with two seconds left — the last of his game-high 26 points — to deal Utah a 77-75 defeat in Haas Pavilion on Thursday night.
Despite holding the Golden Bears to 41 percent shooting on their home floor, Utah (15-7, 6-4 Pac-12) failed to cash in on their chances to win. With 19 turnovers, including three in the final two minutes of regulation, a game Utah felt it had played hard enough to win — and needed to win to stay ahead of Cal in the league standings — evaded their grasp.
"We had a chance to make some plays at the end of regulation where we turned it over and shot ourselves in the foot," coach Larry Krystkowiak said.
Kyle Kuzma had a team-leading 23 points and 14 rebounds in the loss.
Of Utah's seven losses this season, six have come by single digits. Utah had a chance to come through late with a 55-54 lead in regulation, and Cal didn't hit a field goal for the final 2:28 of the game.
On the last possession with 23 seconds left, Utah got a defensive stop. But it couldn't get a rebound on the missed layup by Ivan Rabb. Moore was able to get the ball and drive for a foul call on David Collette. Moore made one of his two free throws, and Kuzma turned it over on an ensuing long inbounds pass to bring the game to the first overtime.
"We just missed shots, we had a couple turnovers," Kuzma said. "That's really it. We played a great defensive game against them, just offensively we kinda stumbled a little bit."
Utah earned its own stay of execution after Bird hit a long 2-pointer with 22 seconds left. Kuzma rebounded off a Utah miss on the next possession, and threw a shot back in with 6.6 seconds left to force double overtime.
The final few minutes of the last overtime washed back and forth as each team's senior guard caught fire. Lorenzo Bonam hit a tying layup, then Bird hit a jumper. After Bonam hit a pair of free throws, Bird hit a 3-pointer. Bonam answered with his own tying shot with 21 seconds left.
Bird had one more opportunity.
In a game in which the Utes only shot 41.5 percent, they prided themselves on a strong defensive effort. After digging themselves into an early 14-point hole, the Utes managed to scramble back and hold Cal's leading scorer Ivan Rabb to a 12-point, 5-for-12 shooting night.
But Bird seemed to defy the Utes' scheme. He hit his final four shots in the second overtime, finishing 11 for 20.
"If you saw his shots, he hit them with a hand in his face," Krystkowiak said. "It wasn't bad defense. It was great defense. It was a really good player stepping up and hitting shots."
Against the physical and long Cal defense, Utah were down 18-4 before nine minutes had passed in the game. Parker Van Dyke helped jolt the offense to life with seven first-half points, and the Utes got as close as six points before trailing 34-26 at halftime.
When a foul-plagued Collette hit the floor after halftime, he made an immediate impact with six points to start the second. Utah tied it at 47 on a Sedrick Barefield free throw with 9:13 remaining, and Kuzma took the first lead at the 6:05 mark, 51-50.
Almost no one had a good shooting night: Kuzma had to fight his way back to 8 for 19, while Collette finished 4 for 12, shooting under 50 percent for the first time as a Ute. Outside of Bonam, Utah's starting guards JoJo Zamora and Devon Daniels were a combined 1 for 8.
Last year, the Utes got swept on their northern California trek. They hope to bounce back this season against Stanford on Saturday to at least earn the split.
"You win a game like that, you're on one end of the spectrum in terms of exuberence and excitement — you lose a game like that, I don't know there's many lower feelings," Krystkowiak said. "That's part of this. We've got to regroup before Stanford."
Twitter: @kylegoon —
Storylines
R Jabari Bird scores 26, including the game-winning alley-oop in double overtime.
• Kyle Kuzma has 23 points and 14 rebounds for Utah.
• Both teams shoot under 42 percent overall.