Justin Pippen scored 16 points and Dai Dai Ames added 15 as California led wire-to-wire and improved to 8-1 with a 67-61 win over visiting Pacific on Saturday.
John Camden had 13 points for Cal, which won its fifth straight game and is off to its best start since going 10-1 to begin the 2014-15 campaign. Chris Bell added 11 points off the bench.
Isaac Jack led Pacific (7-3) with 15 points and a career-high 16 rebounds, and TJ Wainwright scored all of his 13 points in the second half. Elias Ralph, who entered the game averaging a team-high 18.2 points, was held to seven points on 2-of-10 shooting.
Cal led by as many as 14 in the first half and withstood a second-half rally to snap Pacific’s four-game winning streak.
Pacific trailed 63-54 with 2:47 left before cutting the deficit to 63-61 when Jaden Clayton’s layup capped a 7-0 run with 25 seconds remaining.
Camden made one of two foul shots to put the Bears ahead by three with 20 seconds left. Cal made three of its final four foul shots to secure the win after Ralph missed a 3-point shot with nine seconds to play.
Cal improved to 7-0 at Haas Pavilion while shooting 46% from the field and 38.1% (8 of 21) from 3-point range.
The Bears sprinted to a 23-9 lead before Pacific settled in and pulled within 29-23 on Justin Rochelin’s layup with 3:15 left in the half.
The Bears held a 36-27 advantage at intermission after shooting 56% from the field.
Jack scored 10 points in the first half for Pacific, which outrebounded Cal 24-10 in the opening 20 minutes.
Reserve guard Semetri Carr drilled a 3-pointer to put Cal ahead 52-39 with 13:18 left in the second half.
The Tigers responded with an 11-3 run to cut the deficit to 55-50 with 9:13 remaining.
Pacific lost despite outrebounding the Bears 42-31. The Tigers shot 37.1% percent from the field and 30.4% (7 of 23) from beyond the arc.
