LOS ANGELES — Sophomore point guard Dylan Andrews still can’t stop smiling after receiving several days of warm wishes in Westwood after his game-winning shot with less than four seconds to go in UCLA’s 66-65 win against UC Riverside last week.
“It’s dope, man,” said Andrews, who grew up nearby in Gardena. “It’s a blessing. It really shows love and how the fans and the people up here really truly care about the sport and really care about their athletics, so it’s a blessing.”
However, Andrews, who had 17 points and five assists against UC Riverside, quickly became serious when he explained how UCLA (5-2) ended up in the position to need his winning bank shot after leading 55-44 with about eight minutes left against the Highlanders, especially heading into Saturday’s game at Villanova (6-4) in Philadelphia.
“We struggled with following the game plan (against UC Riverside),” Andrews said. “We knew the game plan coming in. We knew for a fact that they were a good 3-point shooting team and we knew for a fact that the only way they could really beat us was 3-point shooting and, credit to them, they hit 14 3’s.
“We really just bombed the game plan because coming in Coach (Darren) Savino really stressed, ‘They’re going to be driving and kicking, they’re going to be looking for 3-point shots, they’re going to pump fake, they’re going to go off two feet in the paint and look for shooters.’ So we knew that, but come game time we just bombed it.”
Meanwhile, Andrews, who is averaging 10.2 points and a team-high 4.3 assists per game, is excited that Saturday’s game against Villanova will be played in the NBA’s Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
“We play Villanova at ‘Nova, it doesn’t get any better than that,” Andrews explained. “That experience to be able to play in that game, I’m very excited about that.”
He is equally as excited about playing Ohio State in a neutral site game at another NBA venue, the…
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