W. hoops falls in Berkeley, 97-84
By Hye Kwon
BERKELEY — After getting hammered by Stanford on Thursday, the
UCLA women’s basketball team failed to redeem itself against
California on Saturday night, losing 97-84 before 1,458 at Harmon
Gym.
UCLA has now lost three consecutive conference games, six out of
their last eight. The Bears, who were last in the conference going
into the game, moved past UCLA in the standings with the win.
The Bruins (7-10 overall, 2-6 Pac-10) played the majority of the
first half without Kisa Hughes, who logged just nine minutes due to
foul trouble. With Hughes on the bench, UCLA struggled to get its
offense going against an aggressive California full-court trap.
"Their press took us out of what we wanted to do," UCLA head
coach Kathy Olivier said. "We got caught up in the up-tempo,
run-and-gun type of a game. We’re not use to playing that, but they
are."
The Bears, on the other hand, shot very well from the floor in
the first half, shooting 58 percent in route to opening up a 22
point halftime lead. California’s two big guns, Eliza Sokolowska
and Jackie Lear, combined for 28 points and 11 assists in the first
half.
"(California) did a good job of penetrating to the inside,"
Olivier said. "We came out and we were on the balls of our feet and
they took advantage of that."
The pivotal point of the half came when Hughes was called for an
elbowing foul which resulted in two shots and the possession of the
ball for the Bears. Olivier vehemently argued against the call, and
in the process picked up a technical foul. After sinking all four
freethrows, the Bears (7-9, 2-5) made a couple of more baskets to
gain their biggest lead of the night, 73-43.
The game was not over, however. The Bruins did sharpen their
game in the second half to make the California fans nervous for a
while. UCLA mounted one last run and in a duration of six minutes,
the Bruins outscored the Bears 25-8 and pulled within 11 points on
Hughes’ lay-in with two minutes left to play.
But that would be all the Bruins would get. The Bears held onto
their lead with a combination of good free-throw shooting and
clutch ball handling.