Women’s hoops bounces
back after loss to Oregon
Kuypers benched, but scores career high against OSU
By Hye Kwon
The UCLA women’s basketball team put together its finest effort
of the season thus far to defeat Oregon State, 84-73, last Saturday
at Pauley Pavilion. The win lifted the confidence of the Bruin team
which was deflated after suffering a crushing defeat against Oregon
just two days earlier.
The Bruins (6-5 overall, 1-1 in Pacific 10) had five players
scoring double figures, but clearly the story of the game was
Ricarda Kuypers. The junior guard inspired her teammates after
coming off the bench to score a career-high 17 points. Fifteen of
those points came in the critical second half when the Bruins
pulled away from the Beavers (9-2, 1-1).
Kuypers had been starting the entire season, but head coach
Kathy Olivier sat the junior on the pine at the beginning of the
game, hoping to send a message to her point guard and the rest of
the team about intensity. Despite the fact that Kuypers, who was
subbed in for starter Jamie Oenning, had a career day as far as
scoring was concerned, Olivier is still doubtful about the
intensity of her point guard.
"(Kuypers) came off the bench and ended up scoring a lot of
points, but she still needs to pick up her level of intensity and
just play hard for as many minutes as she’s on the floor," Olivier
remarked. "I just hope that she learns that going hard and being a
leader is something that we need from our point guard."
One bright spot for the Bruins, which has been shining the
entire season, is the contribution from Kisa Hughes. The junior
center scored 22 points, in 11 for 19 shooting, and grabbed 10
rebounds against the Beavers. It was the seventh time in 11 games
this season that she tallied a double-double. Hughes is now sixth
in the Pac-10 in scoring (17.1 per game), first in rebounding
(11.1), first in field goal percentage (.585) and fifth in blocked
shots (0.8).
The Bruins did finish the second half strong, but the final
outcome would have been hard to predict at the beginning of the
game as UCLA fell behind 29-12 with 11:21 left in the first half.
The rally started from there as the Bruins held the Beavers to just
15 points the rest of the half. The second half was even better for
the Bruins as they outscored the Beavers by 20 points.
* * *
Thursday night when the men’s basketball team was being spanked
by the Ducks in Oregon, the women also received a beating from the
Ducks in Pauley Pavilion. The Ducks dominated the entire game and
ended up beating the Bruins, 84-59.
Reserve forward Kellie Bennett led the Bruins in scoring with 16
points as the Bruin starters were outscored by the Duck starters,
78-29.
***
During the winter break, the Bruins traveled all the way up to
frigid Alaska, ironically, to warm themselves up for the season.
UCLA ended up finishing the tournament in second place after
suffering a loss to Clemson. Prior to that match, UCLA beat Georgia
Tech, 81-69 and North Carolina-Greensboro, 72-70.
"I think what happened was that during the first two games we
played really well and it was mostly our starters playing
significant minutes. And anytime you play three games back to back,
you have to hope that your bench comes in to contribute," Olivier
said. "I think it cost us in the Clemson game because we had to
play so many minutes with our starters, but Clemson didn’t do
that."
After the team came back to Westwood, they took on Kentucky and
North Carolina-Charlotte in nonconference play. The Bruins beat the
Wildcats, 74-65, but lost to the 49ers, 65-50, while allowing them
to shoot more than 50 percent from the floor. That was the first
time that the Bruins have allowed their opponents to shoot better
than 50 percent this season.