Moses Wood beats the buzzer with a three as UW men survive vs. Cal

BERKELEY, Calif. — Moses Wood missed eight of his first nine shots, including six three-pointers.

No matter.

Trailing by a point on the final possession, Wood pumped faked a defender into the air and stepped to his right before firing a three-pointer at the buzzer that gave the Washington men’s basketball team an improbable 77-75 victory on Thursday night against Cal at Haas Pavilion.

Wood finished with 13 points on 2-for-10 shooting, Keion Brooks Jr. led all scorers with 21 points, Anthony Holland had 14 and Sahvir Wheeler chipped in 13 for Washington, which improved to 11-7 and 3-4 in the Pac-12.

UW coach Mike Hopkins replaced center Braxton Meah, who has been struggling to find his footing most of the season, with Wilhelm Breidenbach, who made his third start.

However, the 6-foot-10 backup forward had difficulty containing California’s Fardaws Aimaq and it became quickly apparent midway that UW’s big men were mostly a hindrance in the first half of this matchup.

So, Hopkins slid Brooks into the post and surrounded the 6-7 forward with Wheeler, Wood and Anthony Holland with seven minutes left in the first half.

Washington outscored California 20-9 the rest of the half and led 40-35 at the break.

The Huskies began the second half with an 8-2 run and after Breidenbach’s three-pointer put them up 48-37 Golden Bears coach Mark Madsen called timeout to halt UW’s momentum.

Cal closed to 52-50 when Washington switched to a zone with Meah in the middle that sparked a 7-0 run and 59-50 lead after three free throws from Wood.

Aimaq tied it at 62-62 with a midrange jumper over Meah and both teams traded three-pointers before Aimaq’s three-point play (a short jumper and free throw) put Cal up 68-65.

The Bears were up six points in the final two minutes before the Huskies began chipping at the lead and eventually pulling ahead at the end.

Washington concludes its three-game road trip 6 p.m. Saturday against Stanford.