OAKLAND, Calif. (AP)—Jameer Nelson wanted a short jumper in the middle of the key. When a teammate got in the way, he improvised.
Nelson hit a fadeaway jumper with 4.3 seconds left and finished with 19 points as No. 11 Saint Joseph’s remained unbeaten with a 59-57 win over California in the Pete Newell Challenge on Saturday night.
“I knew I’d take the last shot,” Nelson said. “I didn’t know there was a screen called. I saw him, but I told him to get out of there. I wanted to go to the middle but he took too long so I went right.”
Cal’s Marquise Kately stole the ball from Nelson with 58 seconds left and Delonte West was whistled for an intentional foul. Kately made both free throws to tie the game at 57 and Cal got the ball back. Amit Tamir missed a short baseline jumper, and Nelson brought the ball down and set up his own winner.
Cal drew a final play for Ayinde Ubaka with 1.5 seconds left. Tamir made a long inbound pass to Ubaka in the corner, and he got a 3-pointer off in time but it fell short.
“With 4.3 seconds to go, we got what we wanted and there was no panic,” Braun said. “I thought Amit made a great look. We’ve done that in practice. We were confident we could get a shot off. (Ubaka) is pretty down right now, thought he should have hit that shot. I was proud of our second-half effort. We really corrected some things.”
Even though he missed at the buzzer, the freshman Ubaka found some positives—he learned a thing or two from watching Nelson.
“He made a big-time move,” Ubaka said. “He has a lot of confidence in himself and you can see that. This will definitely make us stronger. Nobody thought we’d be this close.”
Golden Bears freshman Leon Powe recorded his sixth double-double in seven games with 15 points and 13 rebounds in the best showing yet by a Cal team that starts three freshmen. Saint Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli joked Friday that his team would triple-team the 6-foot-8, 245-pound Powe, and he was swarmed nearly every time he touched the ball.
Nelson, widely considered the top point guard in the country, had an electric double-clutch reverse lay-in with 6:22 remaining that tied it at 47, sparking a 10-4 run that gave the Hawks (8-0) a cushion heading into the final minute.
“This is not Jameer Nelson’s show, it’s a team,” Martelli said. “We won a game where we didn’t play our ‘A’ game. I thought this would be a 65-point game—the first team to 65 wins. That’s as good of a defensive team as we’re going to see all year.”
The Bears increased their defensive pressure in the second half and began to hit some of the easy shots they couldn’t make early, shooting 54.5 percent after halftime. The Hawks were forced to take many off-balanced shots as the clock ticked down and they were outrebounded 39-31.
West, Saint Joseph’s second-leading scorer averaging 19.1 points, was limited to six points and four rebounds but passed for seven assists.
Kately, who switched to jersey No. 41 late in the second half after getting blood on his No. 25 uniform, added 16 points for Cal (3-4) in the first meeting between the schools.
But the Bears, playing for the first time after an 11-day break for final exams, struggled at the free throw line—going 15-for-24.
Tamir, Cal’s second-leading scorer, didn’t score until making a lay-in with 14:46 remaining, and it seemed to spark the Bears—Cal then went on a 14-2 run. Powe’s three-point play at 14:09 pulled Cal within 39-33 and Richard Midgley hit a 3 before Tamir scored five straight points, with his 3 at 11:50 tying it at 41.
Cal has struggled from the field this season and that was the case again in the first half. The Bears missed several easy shots and started 4-for-20.
They shot 28.6 percent (8-for-28) in the first half, but stayed within 28-22 at halftime thanks to a 25-15 rebounding edge.
The game was delayed several minutes at the 17:12 mark in the opening half as officials reviewed tape and changed a basket by Carroll from a 2-pointer to a 3.
Saint Joseph’s brought its beloved hawk mascot that flaps its arms through the entire game and halftime.