Cal Pulls Off an Upset of No. 18 UCLA at Chase Center

Cal pulled off its best win in the Mark Madsen era on national television on Tuesday night when it upset 18th-ranked UCLA 80-72 in a nonconference game at Chase Center in San Francisco.

The victory ended a streak of 17 consecutive Cal losses to ranked teams. The last time the Bears defeated a team ranked in the top-25 of the AP poll was February 27, 2020, when the Bears defeated No. 21 Colorado 76-62 in Berkeley.

Chris Bell scored 22 points for Cal while hitting 5-of-7 three-pointers, and several of his three-pointers were pivotal. His scoring in the first half enabled Cal to stay in the game. The Bears (6-1) were 11-for-22 as a team from long range against a UCLA team that prides itself on its defense.

"I think this just shows what kind of team we are," said Bell, a transfer from Syracuse. "We know we're one of the best teams in the country, we just got to go out there and show it."

The 80 points Cal scored were the most points given up by the Bruins this season..

Dai Dai Ames added 14 points for Cal, and all 14 came in the second half. He hit two buckets in the closing minutes to assure the victory, which is the first over a ranked team since Madsen became Cal's head coach before the 2023-24 season.

Cal committed just eight turnovers, and the Bears got contributions from a lot of players.

Rytis Petraitis came off the Cal bench to score 12 points and collect seven rebounds. Justin Pippen had 13 points while going 3-for-6 from long range. Freshman TT Carr provided some important offense in the first half, and Milos Ilic played 23 minutes without hurting the team, even though he was just 1-for-5 from the foul line.

"That's what we talked about in the locker room after the game," said Madsen. "Every single player stepped up. Everybody that went in the game, we had contributions off the bench in terms of energy, communication. Dai Dai had a huge step-back three late. Chris Bell kept us in it. Pippen made plays. Rytis Petraitis got almost every key rebound. I could go on. DJ Campbell went in there and made huge plays early. I could talk about every single player."

Trent Perry led UCLA with 19 points. The Bruins slipped to 5-2, and their only other loss came in a four-point defeat against Arizona, which is ranked No. 2 this week.

"Congratulations to Mark and his team," UCLA coach Mick Cronin said. "If I was watching the game I'd be a fan of their team. Thought they had a great attitude. They deserved to win. They came ready to play. We had some guys who did not; that's on me. It is what it is. . . . . Congratulations, they kicked our a--."

Bell gave Cal its first lead of the second half when he nailed a three-pointer with 14:42 left in the second half to put the Bears ahead 49-46. He also scored the final five points in a later Cal surge that pushed the Bears' lead to 12 points with 9:31 remaining. He was 5-for-5 on three-point attempts at that point.

Cal increased its lead to 12 points on another Bell three-pointer, increased the margin to 13 points at 69-56 with 7:06 remaining in the second half and still led by 10 points with 4:45 to go.

UCLA rallied to within three points 71-67 with 4:12 left thanks to a three-point play by Jamar Brown followed by a three-point shot by Brown.

But two big buckets by Ames sealed the win. He hit a three-pointer with 1:22 left to increase the Cal lead from five points to eight points. He then scored on a 12-footer in the lane to put Cal ahead 80-70 with 36 seconds to go.

He's that man! 😤

📺>>ESPN#GoBears | #ThroughAndThrough pic.twitter.com/q9YUasaW8X
— Cal Basketball (@CalMBBall) November 26, 2025

UCLA played the game without its leading scorer, Tyler Bilodeau, who is averaging 14.8 points but is out with an injury sustained in practice.

The first half was a series of runs and ended with UCLA holding a 41-35 lead.

Cal missed its first five shots to help the Bruins jump out to an 8-0 lead, but the shooting of Bell got Cal back in the game.

The Bears outscored UCLA 20-4 over the next few minutes, including a 2½-minute, 12-0 run to end that spurt, putting the Bears ahead 20-12 with 12:21 remaining in the half.

Bell hit three three-pointers in that Cal run, and he had 12 points less than eight minutes into the game. However, he did not score again in the first half as the Bruins regained control.

UCLA sophomore Perry scored 12 first-half points, and he scored UCLA’s final six points of the half.

UCLA grabbed eight offensive rebounds in the first half, and that helped the Bruins outscore Cal 9-0 on second-chance points.

For the game, UCLA got 14 offensive rebounds to seven for Cal, and the Bruins outscored Cal 15-5 on second-chance points. But the Bears limited UCLA to 40.6% shooting, including 7-for-22 from beyond the arc.

NOTES

Cal guard Dejuan Campbell was available for the first time this season on Tuesday. He sat out the first six games with a groin injury. He made his first appearance in a game early in the first half against UCLA, and he finished with four points.

Tuesday’s game was the 253nd time UCLA and Cal played each other in basketball.

Cal and UCLA did not play each other last season, and the Bears split their two games against the Bruins in 2023-24. However, UCLA had won 12 of its last 13 meetings against the Golden Bears before Tuesday's game.

"I'm from around here, so I'm kind of used to it," said Bell, who is from Concord, California, of UCLA's recent domination of Cal. "It's always been UCLA beating us, so that's what I've been used to growing up."

UCLA came into Tuesday’s game as a 7.5-point favorite over Cal.

Postgame press conferences:

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