This post was updated March 13 at 9:50 p.m.
LAS VEGAS – Dylan Andrews entered this season with a whole new weight of expectations.
The guard is a freshman learner turned veteran leader, quickly assuming point guard duties from longtime facilitator Tyger Campbell.
“He and I have been on a journey all year to replace Tyger and figure out how he can be him instead of Tyger,” said coach Mick Cronin.
With his team’s life on the line, Andrews didn’t just offer his leadership.
He submitted the finest performance of his career.
Extending its season at least another day, No. 5 seed UCLA men’s basketball (16-16, 10-10 Pac-12) sent home No. 12 seed Oregon State (13-19, 5-15) with a 67-57 victory at T-Mobile Arena in the first round of the Pac-12 tournament Wednesday afternoon. With 31 points on seven 3-pointers, Andrews set a new career high, overtaking his previous personal best set back in December.
“The journey of just not being Tyger – it’s different being the point guard at UCLA. You’re going to go through adversity,” Andrews said. “But coach (Cronin) trusts me, my teammates trust me, and I trust them.”
After a turnover-laden early going gave way to a back-and-forth offensive tussle, the Bruins emerged from the mess. Freshman center Aday Mara and his 7-foot-3 stature needed a mere hop at the rim to slam down an Andrews lob, snapping a three-minute scoreless spell for UCLA with just under nine minutes remaining in the first frame.
Thus began the run toward a double-digit halftime advantage.
It started with a jumper from Mara and was followed by a pair of made free throws by sophomore forward/center Adem Bona. And as the Beavers failed to find the bottom of the net on the other end, the Bruins caught fire from deep.
UCLA splashed back-to-back-to-back 3s, first from redshirt sophomore guard Will McClendon and then two from Andrews, jumping out to a 34-22 advantage heading into the break.
It was largely the product of a one-two punch from Andrews and Bona, who had a combined 25 of UCLA’s 34 points heading into the locker room.
“We were just playing as a team, finding the open man, get them to kick it one more,” Bona said. “If I’m not open in the post, I pass it. If he’s not open, he passes it.”
But the hot start wasn’t absent of frustration.
After committing the last of five turnovers, Bona fell flattened on the hardwood. Standing up, he rested his head in his hands – a response typically set in motion by foul trouble for the man who entered Wednesday having totaled four or more fouls on 18 occasions this season.
Regardless of Bona’s errant effort, UCLA stretched its lead to a 15-point peak with just over as many minutes to go in the second stanza.
Then Oregon State assembled its answer.
A pair of 3s from guards Dexter Akanno and Jordan Pope cut the Beavers’ deficit all the way down to four, but the Bruins’ response was almost predictable – Andrews drained yet another triple.
“Shots like that are demoralizing when you’re fighting back, clawing back,” Pope said. “You’re almost there, and one miscue on defense, one relapse, it can get out of your hands just like that.”
Pope, the Beavers’ leading scorer who had racked up four 20-plus-point performances in his previous five games, was held to 16 on 6-for-16 shooting – not enough to extend his team’s season.
As for Bona, he limited his turnover count to one after halftime but would be called for three personal fouls in a three-minute span before the second half even reached the 10-minute mark.
The referee’s whistle, though, went silent afterward, with Bona pitching in 17 points when all was said and done.
He continued to aid Andrews – the poster boy of survival, for now.
