W. basketball falls to Women of Troy, 70-65
Bruins can get no
closer than three
in final seconds
By Hye Kwon
The UCLA women’s basketball team had a chance to upset USC on
Friday night, but after a couple of costly mistakes down the
stretch on the part of the Bruins, the Women of Troy came away with
a 70-65 victory.
With 58 seconds remaining on the clock, the Bruins (10-15
overall, 5-11 in Pac-10) pulled within four points after Kisa
Hughes converted a layup underneath the basket. UCLA then quickly
fouled, sending USC’s Audrey Gomez to the charity stripe.
Gomez, the older sister of UCLA signee Erica Gomez, missed the
front-end of the one-and-one. But the Women of Troy (17-7, 10-6)
came away with the offensive rebound and Gomez was fouled once
again at the 39 second mark. The junior point guard sank both of
those tries and gave USC a six-point lead.
The Bruins did not capitulate at that point, but rather pulled
within three points after Nikki Hilbert sank a trey from the
corner. The strategy for the UCLA coaching staff, once again, was
to quickly foul, hoping the Women of Troy would miss their free
throws. And that’s exactly what happened.
UCLA fouled Gomez once again, and she missed once again. But the
Women of Troy grabbed the offensive rebound yet another time.
Karleen Shields made all four of her free throws from that point to
ensure the USC victory.
"Not blocking out at the free throw line at the end of the game,
there’s no excuse for that," UCLA head coach Kathy Olivier said.
"We’ve been there, we’ve done that. But we continue to do
that."
Coming out of the locker room after halftime, the Bruins were
trailing by the score of 39-31. But thanks in large to Aisha
Veasley, UCLA pulled within 39-37 just three minutes later.
Veasley, who finished the game with four steals and three rebounds,
acted as the catalyst to the Bruins.
"She did a great job defensively," Olivier said. "She made
things happen every time she came into the game."
For the Women of Troy, Gomez came off the bench and ran the
offense to perfection. She finished with 12 points, six assists and
three steals.
"Because of Audrey Gomez, we have lost two games to ‘SC (this
season)," Olivier said. "(Gomez) takes them to another level."
After having a semi-quiet presence in the first half, Tina
Thompson finished in her usual stellar fashion, racking up 20
points and 11 rebounds. Thompson also had three blocked shots in
the game.
Scoring for the Bruins was led by Hughes who had 16 points. UCLA
was also paced by Hilbert who ended up with 14 points and Kellie
Bennett who contributed 13 points.