Former St. Anthony star Kyle Anderson must like playing in China.
The 6-foot-9 forward posted his second double-double of UCLA’s three-game trip to the Far East, coming up with 21 points and 11 rebounds as the Bruins beat the Shanghai Sharks 92-63 Tuesday night. Sharks team owner Yao Ming met the Bruins after the game and posed for photos.
“I thought that I had a pretty good and complete all-around game,” said Anderson, who had 11 points, 13 rebounds and 6 assists in the team’s first game of a 3-0 trip. “It just came along with the team game. It was about getting guys involved and defensive rebounds and doing things to allow the team to win.”
Travis Wear tallied 26 points for UCLA and freshman Jordan Adams had 18. UCLA played without star freshman Shabazz Muhammad, who is awaiting clearance from the NCAA.
“I think that we have a very good recruiting class that’s coming into our program – three of the players were here with us in China,” head coach Ben Howland said of Anderson, Adams and Tony Parker. “We have a very good group of returning players who learned a lot from last year. We have very high expectations to be successful going into this season. Our number one expectation is to try and win the Pac-12. Winning the Pac-12 automatically gets you a berth to the NCAA Tournament.”
Anderson, who led St. Anthony to back-to-back New Jersey Tournament of Champions titles and went 65-0 in his two years there, said he learned a great deal in his first games as a Bruin.
“I definitely learned that you have to play hard,” he said. “There are no possessions off in college. Every time you are out there, you have to give your all. It all comes with being well-conditioned. You’ve just got to play hard every second that you’re out there.”
He added: “I think this helped me out a lot. I had no clue that this is how it was. I had a clue, but I guess I wasn’t that well-prepared for it. But I think this got me pretty well-prepared.”
