BACK IN THE PAC OT WIN PUTS UCLA IN CONFERENCE TOURNEY PICTURE UCLA 76, CALIFORNIA 75.

Byline: Bill Witz Staff Writer

For the past month Dijon Thompson hasn't talked to the media, but finally he had something to say - and so did the Bruins.

Thompson's fallaway 15-footer with six seconds left in overtime lifted the Bruins to a 76-75 upset Thursday night of No. 18 California at Pauley Pavilion.

It was the first victory at home in more than two months and so unusual that UCLA students celebrated by rushing the court when Amit Tamir's jumper at the buzzer missed.

The victory also moved the Bruins (6-16, 3-10) a half-game ahead of Washington for eighth place and the final Pacific-10 Conference tournament berth.

Not that it was pretty. The Bruins blew a 13-point second-half lead, and Thompson's bucket was their only basket of the overtime period.

Thompson scored 20 points and had 11 rebounds to lead the Bruins. UCLA also got big games from Ray Young, who replaced injured Cedric Bozeman (sore shoulder) in the lineup and scored a season-high 18 points, and T.J. Cummings, who came off the bench to contribute 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting.

Brian Wethers led Cal with 21 points, and Joe Shipp added 18.

The Bruins had several chances to win the game before Thompson's shot. Young, after missing a dunk, ended up with the rebound and was fouled. But both his free throws rimmed out with 37.4 seconds left, leaving his team behind 75-74. But the Bruins got the ball back when Richard Midgely missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 28.9 seconds left.

The Bruins called timeout, then ran a play for Thompson in the post. His jumper missed, but the rebound was batted out toward him, and his fallaway jumper with Conor Famulener running at him settled into the bottom of the net with six seconds left.

Cal (18-5, 11-3) rallied from a 13-point deficit to send the game into overtime, but both teams had a chance to win it in regulation.

UCLA, with a 70-69 lead, had the ball after a Cal turnover with 1:22 left, but Young threw up a long jumper with 25 seconds left on the shot clock. Cal, after a timeout, ran a play that sprung Tamir for an open 3-pointer at the top of the key, which he sank with 50 seconds left to put Cal ahead 72-70.

The Bruins got even when Cummings grabbed the rebound of a miss by Jason Kapono and put it back in with 35 seconds left. Cal held the ball for the last shot, but all it ended up with was Wethers' wild drive through the lane that didn't hit the rim. The Bruins got the rebound and managed a halfcourt shot by Kapono at the buzzer, but it was short.

In the first half, the Bears didn't look much like a team that was ranked 18th and nipping at Arizona's heels in the Pac-10 race. Instead, they looked a lot like the Bruins have this season.

Offensively, Cal often launched the first open look it got - taking 15 3-pointers and making just three. The Bears had three assists, with their best offensive weapon being the offensive rebound, of which they had 10.

Most guilty was Wethers, who made just 3 of 12 shots. Tamir wasn't much better, making just 3 of 10 shots, including 1 of 6 3-pointers.

Young also did a decent job containing Cal's leading scorer, Shipp.

Cal looked lulled asleep by the Bruins, jumping out to a 12-5 lead, then allowing the Bruins to catch them at 16. The Bears then took a 27-20 lead, only to watch the Bruins outscore them 18-6 the rest of the half.

The Bears melted down in the final minute of the half after missing three shots, then failing to get back on defense as the Bruins took a 34-33 lead on Thompson's alley-oop layup on a pass by Young. The Bears then failed to have anybody available to take the inbounds pass and were called for a five-second violation.

UCLA got the ball into Cummings, who scored under the basket. Cal turned the ball over and Gabriel Hughes fouled Kapono, who hit two free throws to put the Bruins ahead 38-33, a lead they took into the locker room.

UCLA continued to control the game in the second half, this time at the offensive end. The Bruins, who shot 50 percent from the field, were even hotter in the second half.

They hit their first eight shots and 10 of the first 11, the only miss being a wide-open 3-pointer by Kapono.

And the shots were being made by unlikely sources: Young, who hit a pair of 3-pointers, and Ryan Hollins, with a pair of jumpers from beyond the free-throw line.

Coming in, Young was shooting 21 percent on 3-pointers this season and had made just 4 of his past 24 3-pointers. Hollins, the athletic 6-foot-11 postman, rarely had done much offensively other than dunk.

UCLA led 57-44 before Cal slowly made its way back. The Bears finally got even on Wethers' free throws with 4:24 left in regulation.

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Photo:

(color) UCLA's Ray Young scored a season-high 18 points in the Bruins' 76-75 upset of California on Thursday.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer