Reeves Nelson’s putback as time expired lifted UCLA to an 86-84 victory over California in a Pac-10 Conference game at Pauley Pavilion on Thursday night.

The Bruins blew a 15-point lead in the second half. Cal tied the game on a 3-pointer by Allen Crabbe with 13 seconds to play, but Nelson rebounded a miss by Tyler Honeycutt before the buzzer sounded to lift the Bruins to their third straight win. Nelson and Lazeric Jones both scored 24 points to lead the Bruins (12-6, 4-2 Pac-10).

UCLA opened up its biggest lead 65-50 on a 3-pointer by Jerime Anderson with 9:02 left. But the Golden Bears rallied and cut the lead to single digits in the final minutes and went on a 13-6 run to tie the game.

Cal (9-9, 2-4 Pac-10) was led by Harper Kamp's 21 points. The Bears made one 3-pointer, while UCLA was 10 for 24 from 3-point range.

The Bruins led by as many as 11 points in the first half after Nelson capped a modest 8-2 run with a three-point play with 4:17 to play. The Bears quickly cut the deficit to 36-34, but trailed 41-35 at the half.