Ian Martinez Lifts Utah Past Cal With Big Second Half Performance

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Utah true freshman Ian Martinez had a season-high 16 points, including 9 points in the second half in their 76-75 win over Cal on Thursday.

The game featured a crazy finish in the final 60 seconds between Utah and Cal. It’s the third straight win for the Utes and seem to be playing their best basketball at the right time.

Timmy Allen led Utah with 18 points and 4 rebounds. Branden Carlson added 13 points and 3 blocks, while Pelle Larsson chipped in 11 points, 2 rebounds and 3 assists.

For Cal, Matt Bradley had 20 points to lead all scorers. Grant Anticevich posted 18 points and 8 rebounds. Andre Kelly contributed 17 points and 7 boards.

The Runnin’ Utes were without Rylan Jones, who suffered an injury during practice leading up to the game.

FINAL

Cal had a chance to tie the game at the end but missed the first of two free throws.#GoUtes #Pac12Hoops pic.twitter.com/vTVWaeNBDu

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) February 12, 2021

Utah Ends First Half On Big Run Against Cal

The game changed styles many different times during the first half. It started out with a quick pace as each team was getting shots up fast. Then there was a stretch of 3 minutes that each team went scoreless before the Bears and Utes started exchanging threes.

Over the last four minutes of the first half, Utah went on a 12-1 run, making four of their five field goal attempts. Cal missed five straight FG attempts and didn’t score a field goal during that stretch.

For Utah, Ian Martinez scored seven of the 12 points during that run to end the first half. Alfonso Plummer knocked down a three and Timmy Allen picked up a bucket. Allen led the Utes with 14 points in the first 20 minutes of action.

HALFTIME@UtahMBB ends the first half on a 12-1 run.#GoUtes #Pac12Hoops pic.twitter.com/iQIDeQPwNo

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) February 11, 2021

Ian Martinez Lifts Utah Past Cal With Big Second Half

Martinez had a big second half to complement his first half performance. He scored 9 points in the second half, shooting 3-of-4 from the field, 1-for-1 from the three-point line and made both of his free throw attempts. For the game, the true freshman missed just two of his seven shot attempts and made all five free throws.

The Utes needed that performance from Martinez especially with the loss of Rylan Jones to injury.

As mentioned above, the last 60 seconds of the game was crazy.

Timmy Allen made a free throw to put the Utes up 75-68 with 45 seconds left. Cal’s star guard Matt Bradley countered with two free throws to cut the lead to five with 33 seconds remaining. Allen went one for two for the second straight trip at the foul line but the Utes lead was still two-possessions at six.

Cal responded with a second chance layup by Andre Kelley and the lead was 76-72 in favor of Utah with 17 seconds left. Allen then missed both free throws at the other end. Then Bradley ran down the floor and made a layup with six seconds left.

As the Utes went to inbound the ball with a two-point lead, they didn’t handle the inbounds play well and Cal stole the ball. Bradley had an open look at a three-pointer but it missed. The Bears collected the offensive rebound and was fouled with 0.7 seconds left.

Utes WIN! pic.twitter.com/s1ZDSmqZRL

— Utah Basketball🏀 (@UtahMBB) February 12, 2021

With a chance to tie the game and send it to overtime, Andre Kelley missed the first free throw before making the second.

Utah improved their record to 9-7 overall and 6-6 in Pac-12 play. They will finish their bay area road trip with a game against Stanford on Saturday, February 13 at 8 p.m. MST on the Pac-12 Networks.

Trevor Allen is a Utah Utes Insider for KSLSports.com and host of the Crimson Corner podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @TrevorASports. You can download and listen to the podcast, here.