Dai Dai Ames overcame foul trouble to pour in a season-best 29 points, and Cal overcame a lull early in the second half to outfinish visiting Georgia Tech 90-85 in an Atlantic Coast Conference men’s basketball game in Berkeley, Calif., on Wednesday night.
Milos Ilic capped an 11-point performance with four clutch free throws. John Camden chipped in with 15 points, Chris Bell 14 and Justin Pippen 13 to complement seven rebounds and a team-high six assists for the Golden Bears (17-6, 5-5 ACC), who won for the fourth time in their last five games.
Baye Ndongo flirted with a triple-double for Georgia Tech (11-12, 2-8) before fouling out with 10 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists.
Fresh off a road win at Miami (Fla.), Cal led 43-29 at halftime on the strength of eight 3-pointers and went up 46-31 in the first minute of the second period after a deep hoop by Ames before the Yellow Jackets rallied.
Kam Craft dropped in a layup and went outside for a pair of 3-pointers, setting the stage for a Davi Remagen 11-footer that produced a 49-all tie at the 15:12 mark. Georgia Tech was just 2-for-17 from deep in the first half.
Another 3-pointer by Craft had the visitors even at 59-all before Cal held the upper hand over the final 10 minutes.
After back-to-back 3-pointers and a layup by Akai Fleming had pulled Georgia Tech within 80-77 with still 1:10 remaining, the Golden Bears pulled away at the free-throw line, featuring a 4-for-4 run by Ilic.
The Golden Bears finished 28-for-39 at the line, outscoring the visitors by 21 points from the stripe.
Ilic was Cal’s leading rebounder with nine, just missing what would have been his first double-double of the season.
Fleming came off the bench to pace the Yellow Jackets with 19 points, shooting 3-for-6 from deep. Chas Kelley III aided the visitors’ cause with 15 points, while Craft and Jaeden Mustaf had 14 apiece for Georgia Tech, which lost for the seventh time in its last eight outings.
