Women’s hoops defeats USD Friday, 87-69
ANDREW SCHOLER/Daily Bruin
UCLA guard Erica Gomex played a career-high 34 minutes and
recorded seven steals in the Bruins’ loss to No. 5 Vanderbilt.
By Emmanuelle Ejercito
In a game where the most valuable player was the entire team,
the UCLA
women’s basketball team defeated University of San Diego,
87-69.
After their exhibition loss to the Perth Breakers two weeks ago,
the
Bruins felt their communication needed improvement. So, Friday
afternoon,
UCLA came on the floor screaming and aggressive.
"We built on our mistakes," UCLA head coach Kathy Olivier said.
"We made
improvements in areas that we needed improvements in. We talked
about
communication, talking on defense."
Although the Bruins enjoyed a height advantage, they were unable
to
capitalize on it until the second half, when they exploded with
a 21-5
run.
The Toreros also came out aggressive and were able to match well
with
the taller Bruins. In fact, USD led for most of the first half.
It was not
until the last five minutes that UCLA applied a full court press
and began
a run that spilled over into the second half.
"If you have to guard somebody a lot taller, rebounding …
defending
… trying to shoot over them, it makes you really tired," USD
head coach
Kathy Marpe said. "I tried to rotate them, but my guards were
real tired,
when they put the pressure on, that’s when we did those
quick
turnovers."
Fatigue did not affect the Bruins, who rotated players regularly
and had
only one player, Niki Hilbert, play over 30 minutes. Meanwhile,
USD played
only six players in the first half.
In the second half, the Bruins took advantage of their height
and went
for the easy shot, setting up center Kisa Hughes in the paint.
Hughes
finished with 13 points. The high scorer for the Bruins was
Hilbert with 14
but a total of five players scored in the double digits for
UCLA. The
Bruins ended the second half with a 56.7 shooting
percentage.
"Kisa was making herself more available," Olivier said. "We
wanted to
look for the easy shot. We wanted to go hard to the basket and
get to the
free throw line."
* * *
On Sunday the Bruins faced fifth-ranked Vanderbilt at the Fleet
Center
in Boston at the Reebok Women’s Basketball Classic. Vanderbilt
prevailed
70-64.
Keeping unranked UCLA in the game was its defense. The Bruins
forced 37
turnovers while giving up only 27. Leading the Bruins in steals
were
freshman point guard Erica Gomez – who played a career high 34
minutes –
and Hilbert, both with seven steals.
At the break, the Bruins trailed the Commodores 29-27. But poor
shooting
hurt UCLA, which only shot 36.4 percent in the second half
compared to
Vanderbilt’s 59.2 percent.