Dylan Andrews helps UCLA survive late scare in narrow win over Indiana
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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — It all had an eerie, uncomfortable and painfully familiar feel.
Loads of turnovers by a team that’s usually careful with the ball. Missed free throws. A long scoring drought.
Suddenly, what had been a double-digit lead for UCLA against Indiana on Friday night was down to two points as a game that yo-yoed between a comfortable cushion and an epic collapse was headed in the wrong direction once more for the Bruins.
Back to the free-throw line, with just 4.2 seconds left, stepped Dylan Andrews. The point guard already had missed two front ends of one-and-one situations, taking as many as four points off the board in what felt like a potential repeat of the Bruins’ excruciating loss to North Carolina in December.
An inability to consistently stop USC star JuJu Watkins coupled with turnovers ultimately prove too much for UCLA women’s basketball to overcome in a 71-60 loss.
As Andrews approached the line, he exhaled, took two dribbles and spun the ball in his hands. He swished the first attempt. Then the second.
About a half-hour later, as he stood in a hallway deep inside Assembly Hall discussing the free throws that helped his team hold on for a 72-68 victory, Andrews could get only a few words out before being interrupted by UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond.
“Big-time right there,” Jarmond said as he patted Andrews on the shoulder.
There was also a compliment from Bruins coach Mick Cronin, whose team committed nine of its 11 turnovers in the second half and had to withstand Mackenzie Mgbako missing a wide-open three-pointer that could have given the Hoosiers the lead with six seconds left.
“He’s a great kid,” Cronin cracked of Andrews, “and he really cares about his coach and he didn’t want to see me go to the hospital.”
How did Andrews make those free throws after missing six of seven shots and two of his first three free throws?
“At the end of the day, you know you’re not going to make every shot,” Andrews said, “so you’ve got to stay confident, you’ve got to stay poised and the team needed it.”
The Bruins (19-7 overall, 10-5 Big Ten) certainly did, both for NCAA tournament seeding purposes and to show they could win in traditional Big Ten country. They prevailed despite guard Sebastian Mack missing the front end of a one-and-one with 1:18 left on the same sequence in which he was fouled and earned a technical foul for flinging an elbow into the face of Indiana’s Anthony Leal.
“We kept our head down and we still fought,” Mack said after his team nearly threw away a seven-point lead in the final 78 seconds, “and that’s why we were victorious.”
UCLA’s first conference triumph outside the Pacific Time Zone was both a statement and a further revelation of all the work that remained ahead for this team to make a deep postseason run.
Some things for Cronin to ponder: Should center Aday Mara (eight points, five rebounds and two blocks in only 13 minutes) have played more than his five minutes in the second half after having fully recovered from a suspected case of norovirus? Did freshman guard Trent Perry make a case for more playing time after what might have been his best performance of the season, including a crucial block of a Myles Rice jumper with 1:57 left?
“Every game, I’m the same,” Cronin said. “We try to win, then we evaluate the film — what do we need to do to get better? Because for us, it’s about the NCAA tournament. That’s just the way it is.”
Cronin said he went away from Mara because the Hoosiers (15-11, 6-9) went with a small lineup, but their comeback was fueled in part by several baskets inside that probably would have been more heavily contested by UCLA’s 7-foot-3 defensive menace.
The Bruins were up by two when Mack wildly missed a driving layup, teammate Skyy Clark momentarily grabbing the rebound only to be double-teamed by two Indiana defenders who forced a jump ball that went to the Hoosiers because of the possession arrow.
Rice missed a baseline jumper and Mgbako missed a putback before the ball went out of bounds to the Hoosiers with nine seconds left. Mgbako came off a screen, found himself open and rose for a three-pointer. But it was off the mark, and Andrews grabbed the critical rebound before getting fouled, sending him back to the line.
A furious rally came up just short as UCLA’s seven-game winning streak ended with a loss at Illinois.
Forward Tyler Bilodeau led the Bruins with 12 points and Clark added 11 for the Bruins. Guard Luke Goode scored 16 points to lead the Hoosiers, who have lost eight of 10 games in what will be coach Mike Woodson’s final season after he recently announced his impending departure.
Asked about being a possible candidate for the opening, Cronin alluded to fickle fans who might be dissatisfied with some of his decisions in his current job.
“Here’s how I look at that stuff: I might be on your hot boards and they might want my ass fired on our hot boards,” Cronin said. “That’s how I look at that, so I stay off the hot boards. That’s just the way it is — you can go from one board to the other real quick, hired and fired, you know what I’m saying?”
Playing UCLA’s first game inside this hallowed building had long been on the Bruins’ minds.
The season a month away as they sat behind a table inside a convention center ballroom just outside Chicago for Big Ten media day, Andrews and Kobe Johnson already were in sync about one thing.
Which arena in their new conference were the UCLA guards most looking forward to playing in?
Johnson cast a knowing glance at his teammate.
“You want to say it at the same time?” Johnson asked. “Assembly.”
“Yeah,” Andrews added, a beat late. “Assembly Hall.”
UCLA sophomore forward Eric Dailey Jr. learned at an early age from his basketball coach parents it takes seemingly endless work to achieve lofty goals.
If there was a stretch of basketball that captured the Andrews experience during what’s been an up-and-down-and-up-again season for the junior, it came in the final minutes.
Midway through the second half, he zipped a smart pass to Johnson for a layup, followed by a three-pointer that put the Bruins up by double digits.
Then came the agonizing flip side. Running an offense that repeatedly turned the ball over and went scoreless for nearly three minutes. The missed free throw on the front end of a one-and-one.
Redemption came with his team teetering, Andrews believing in himself the whole way.
“I knew for a fact,” he said, “that if I got another shot to shoot free throws, that I was going to make it.”
Go beyond the scoreboard
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