Dylan Andrews exhaled, took two dribbles, spun the ball and swished the free throw.
After so much had gone wrong for UCLA, including two missed free throws on the front end of one-and-one situations and a seven-point lead the Bruins nearly squandered in the final 78 seconds, his team could finally breathe.
Andrews’ two free throws with 4.2 seconds left gave UCLA a 72-68 victory over Indiana that was a lot scarier than it needed to be for the Bruins.
The Hoosiers had a chance to tie the score or take the lead while inbounding the ball with nine seconds left. Mackenzie Mgbako came off a screen, found himself wide open and rose for a three-pointer.
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But it was off the mark and Andrews grabbed the critical rebound leading to the Bruins’ first Big Ten victory outside the Pacific Time Zone this season.
Things got more than a little frightening for the Bruins (19-7 overall, 10-5 Big Ten) in the closing minutes.
After UCLA’s Sebastian Mack grabbed a rebound with his team up by seven, he was fouled but hit Indiana’s Anthony Leal in the face. Mack was awarded a one-and-one situation and missed the front end. Leal was awarded two free throws and made them both.
Indiana was awarded the ball, but Myles Rice missed a jumper and Andrews secured the rebound before getting fouled. But Andrews missed the front end of his one-and-one and Indiana pulled to within 70-68 after Malik Reneau made a layup while getting fouled with 53 seconds left.
Tyler Bilodeau scored 12 points and Skyy Clark added 11 for the Bruins. Luke Goode scored 16 to lead the Hoosiers (15-11, 6-9).
UCLA was in excellent position to rebound from a tough loss to Illinois earlier this week after Andrews made two excellent plays, throwing a pass to Kobe Johnson for a layup and taking a pass from Aday Mara for a three-pointer that extended the Bruins’ lead to 57-47 with 9:28 remaining.
After making just two of 13 three-pointers in the first half, Indiana came out scorching from long range after halftime. When Goode made a three-pointer to cut the Hoosiers’ deficit to 40-36, they had made four of their first five shots from beyond the arc.
Some steady play off the bench from UCLA freshman guard Trent Perry, including a three-pointer, helped his team stabilize things and regain a more comfortable advantage.
UCLA’s 35-25 halftime lead felt far more convincing given the Bruins’ dominance on both ends of the court.
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Quickly forcing Indiana to abandon its zone defense because of its ability to make jump shots, UCLA also shut down the Hoosiers for long stretches. Indiana went more than seven minutes without a field goal at one point and missed its first seven three-pointers before Trey Galloway finally broke through.
After being drained by a suspected case of norovirus over the previous two games, Mara was back to being a two-way menace. He blocked an Oumar Ballo shot shortly after entering the game before throwing down a dunk off a pass from Bilodeau.
Mara added a dunk off a Clark lob and showed another emerging skill when he spun around Ballo for a jump hook, but his finest moment might have come when he whipped a bounce pass to Perry under the basket for a layup.
The Bruins got just enough contributions to hold on while holding off the Hoosiers.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
