EUGENE, Ore. — Dylan Andrews wasn’t supposed to take the shot his team needed to make to wipe out so much that had gone wrong in the final minutes.
With UCLA trailing Oregon by one point and 6.4 seconds left Sunday afternoon inside Matthew Knight Arena, the play was designed to go for Tyler Bilodeau or Lazar Stefanovic.
When Andrews took the inbounds pass near midcourt and immediately stumbled on a wet spot, it seemed as if fate might not be on the Bruins’ side. The Ducks compounded the situation by switching on every screen, taking away the top scoring options and leaving Andrews confronted by center Nate Bittle as Andrews drove toward the left wing.
The clock was dwindling. There was no other move to make. The 6-foot-2 Andrews rose for a shot over the outstretched arm of the 7-foot Bittle.
As Andrews backpedaled to watch the trajectory of a shot that needed a little help, fate was suddenly a friend.
“During those times you see the ball in slow motion and you see it going toward the backboard,” Andrews said, “and the rest is history.”
The rest was the stuff of legends, madness in December.
Andrews’ three-pointer banked into the basket with four-tenths of a second left, leaving a crowd that had been buzzing moments earlier in stunned disbelief. After teammate Eric Dailey Jr. tipped away Oregon’s full-court inbounds pass, the Bruins could celebrate an epic 73-71 triumph that gave the No. 12 Ducks their first loss of the season.
“We tried to give it away,” UCLA coach Mick Cronin said after his team persevered for its seventh consecutive victory, “we just got fortunate that we got a shot to go in at the end.”
Andrews’ teammates showered him with the contents of their water bottles afterward in a jubilant locker room, the roars carrying well into a nearby corridor.
“Oh, he went to SeaWorld today,” Dailey, who finished with 19 points on seven-for-eight shooting, said of his teammate.
It was the kind of heroics that had eluded Andrews in 2023 during the Pac-12 tournament when he missed a three-pointer against Arizona, not to mention the kind that had doomed the Bruins twice during crushing NCAA tournament losses to Gonzaga. It was also another giant step forward for a team that was overwhelmed by New Mexico exactly one month earlier. The Bruins haven’t lost since.
“You know, you don’t just get six transfers and two freshmen and start looking like a well-oiled machine,” Cronin said. “It takes a while to create habits, create continuity, but my biggest thing was our fight — first road game, make sure we packed our toughness, make sure we took care of the ball. We didn’t turn it over one time against their press, and I told them if we do that we’re going to have a chance to win.”
Andrews’ holiday miracle provided another riveting chapter in a series that has involved some memorable finishes, including a Dillon Brooks three-pointer with less than a second to play in an Oregon win in 2016 and the Ducks blowing a nine-point lead in the final 51 seconds of regulation in a loss in 2019.
This time, UCLA (8-1 overall, 2-0 Big Ten) was the team on the verge of collapse. Ahead by seven points with three minutes to play, the Bruins did everything they could to help the Ducks (9-1, 1-1) come back.
Dailey missed a box-out on a free throw, leading to an offensive rebound and a three-pointer. UCLA’s Kobe Johnson fouled Brandon Angel taking an inbounds pass, leading to two free throws. Bilodeau faked out Bittle while driving for a dunk only to have his shot blocked by point guard Keeshawn Barthelemy.
And, in the sequence that looked like it would define his day, Andrews made a crucial turnover with 18 seconds left when Bittle (22 points, 10 rebounds) deflected his pass off the backboard for a steal. That triggered a fastbreak ending in Jackson Shelstad’s three-pointer that gave the Ducks a 71-70 lead with 10 seconds left and had their fans roaring.
But the Bruins refused to fold on a day they committed only nine turnovers and their defense starred before letting up considerably in the final minutes. Cronin yanked Dailey with 2:32 left after his missed box-out, not reinserting him until there were six seconds to go. By then the Bruins’ seven-point lead had become a one-point deficit.
“His scoring was good, but when he didn’t block out on the foul line, that’s about as bad as it gets,” Cronin said. “Once he got us the lead with his offense, ... I was trying to get a better defensive lineup in there.”
Cronin was also miffed that Dailey earned a technical foul in the first half for taunting the Oregon bench after making a three-pointer.
“He’s going to have a little 6 a.m. [workout] on Tuesday morning,” Cronin said. “The only guy who can get technical fouls on this team is me.”
Some forgiveness might be in order given the happy ending for his team. After UCLA called timeout with 10 seconds to go to set up a final play down by one point, Oregon committed a foul with six seconds to go to disrupt their plans. Cronin called another timeout.
It looked like the Ducks might be on their way to a celebration when Andrews took the inbounds pass, slipped and then hoisted a shot that appeared to have too much force behind it, only for the Bruins to learn the force was with them.
“It was so off,” an incredulous Ducks fan said while walking up an aisle afterward, “it went in.”
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