Jalen Celestine came into the game Saturday as one of the most effective 3-point shooters in the country, hitting better than 47 percent of his shots from long distance.
Then he missed his first four attempts from the perimeter and had just 2 points heading into the final minutes at Washington as it looked like this just might not be his night.
Actually, it would turn out, he was just saving his best for last.
With 1:40 remaining, Celestine rattled in a game-tying 3-pointer from the right wing as a stage-setter for even more dramatics. Cal coach Mark Madsen called timeout with 11.6 seconds left to get his team settled after a steal by Jalen Cone, as Cone was swarmed by Huskies defenders on the other end.
Naturally, the Bears got the ball to star Jaylon Tyson, but he was quickly doubled and kicked it back to Celestine, who connected again from almost the same spot for the game-winning 3 as Cal scored an 82-80 win over the Huskies in Seattle.
It was a fitting ending too, given that Washington (14-12, 6-9) had done the same to the Bears (11-15, 7-8) with a game-winning 3 in the final minutes of a 77-75 win at Haas Pavilion last month.
Cal has now played the most single-digit games in the country at 19, improving to 8-11 in those contests while also bouncing back from a two-game losing skid and an ugly 84-65 loss at Washington State earlier in the week.
“I’m so proud of our guys. It’s a game of runs. We had a strong first half. Washington just did a great job coming out in the second half with their transition offense, they got a couple layups on us. We had to call some timeouts, we challenged our guys, and our guys just really responded to everything,” Madsen said.
“We had a tough game against Washington State. We just weren’t ourselves. Shoot, one of our players got a technical, I got a technical, it’s unacceptable. That’s unacceptable … We all kind of regrouped, we watched the film, and our guys had a phenomenal practice day yesterday. Just really proud of our team.”
As for Celestine, he’s now shooting a scorching 46.1 percent from 3-point range this season (35 of 76), which would rank second nationally if he had enough attempts to qualify for the NCAA leaderboard.
“He was shooting early in the game, his shot wasn’t going, but he stayed locked in. And he stayed locked in defensively, a lot of times on the other team’s best player, Keion Brooks. That was a good battle,” Madsen said.
Tyson led Cal with a game-high 28 points on 11-of-20 shooting, but he also had 6 assists and made the right read on that final possession to kick the ball out to the perimeter and let Celestine have the moment.
“We drew up a play with different options. The primary option was not there, so the secondary option triggered, and that’s basically what happened with the play and Jaylon Tyson made just the most unbelievable read with the pass and Jalen Celestine made the most unbelievable shot to win the game,” Madsen said.
Jalen Cone added 14 points, Fardaws Aimaq had 13 points and 15 rebounds before fouling out with more than 4 minutes to play, Keonte Kennedy contributed 12 points and 9 boards and Celestine finished with 8 points.
Cal went down 75-70 soon after losing Aimaq, but his replacement on the court, Grant Newell, came through with a couple big possessions, making a layup on a smooth feed from Tyson and then grabbing an offensive rebound and second-chance basket to make it a one-point game.
A couple minutes later, Brooks — who had a team-high 26 for Washington — scored in the paint to put the Huskies up 79-76 with under 2 minutes to play before Celestine’s big shots swung the game for the Bears.
UW’s Sahvir Wheeler raced end to end after Celestine’s go-ahead 3 to try to tie it up, but he could finish on his drive to the basket as time expired.
“Our guys never got tired and that was really, really good to see. Keonte, Celestine, Cone gave an unbelievable effort out there. And then you talk about the last possession of the game, Wheeler is driving it down our throat, Cone’s there to take a charge and it’s Keonte who comes over with a game-saving block,” Madsen said.
