W. hoops players receive honors
Season ends as Gomez and Hilbert win Pac-10 honors
By Emmanuelle Ejercito
Daily Bruin Staff
Before the story of the UCLA women’s basketball team’s 1995-96
season ends, a few footnotes need to be made.
Point guard Erica Gomez became only the second Bruin to be named
the Pacific 10 Freshman of the Year. She also earned honorable
mention on the All-Conference team.
Gomez ended her freshman campaign ranked third (behind two
seniors) in the conference with 6.5 assists per game, and fourth in
steals. Her 176 assists this season places her fourth on UCLA’s
all-time list. And she recorded the first UCLA triple-double since
1978. The freshman also averaged 11.8 points and four rebounds per
game.
But Erica also added something to the Bruins that cannot be
measured by numbers.
"Erica brought an attitude to the team that we can do this, that
this game is fun," UCLA head coach Kathy Olivier said. "She brought
a new attitude and confidence to our team that we just lacked and a
freshman doing that – that’s huge."
Also earning All-Conference honors is junior Nikki Hilbert.
Hilbert was named to the All-Conference first team.
"I think that is a great accomplishment for Nikki," Olivier
said. "In the past, she didn’t really play with much consistency as
she did this year. Her bad games were still good games."
Hilbert did not just play consistently, she played consistently
better throughout the season. This year alone, Hilbert set career
highs in scoring five times. At the end of last season her career
high was only 19 points, but she upped her mark to 33 points as the
Bruins’ leading scorer with 16.9 points per game.
* * *
The end of the season brings the end of the careers for four
UCLA players – Allison Arredondo, Kisa Hughes, Zrinka Kristich and
Ricarda Kuypers – as well as new hopes.
With the graduation of the four seniors, the Bruins lose two of
their best all-time three-point scorers in Arredondo and Kuypers
and two of their tallest players – Hughes and Kristich.
The two post players ended the season ranked one and two in the
conference in field-goal percentage. Although Kristich held the top
spot through most of the season, with her solid performances in
Washington, Hughes claimed first place with 57.7 percent. Kristich
was not far behind with 56.3 percent.
"I think that Zrinka had a great year and I think that Kisa had
a great career at UCLA," Olivier said. "You’re going to miss
players like that."
However, the pain of separation should be eased by the prospects
of one of the nation’s best recruiting classes and a recovered
Takiyah Jackson.
When Jackson went down over the summer with a torn anterior
cruciate ligament, it may have hurt the Bruins more that it hurt
Jackson.
"We went into the season with high hopes of finishing in the top
half of the conference, but Jackson was a key part of our plans,"
Olivier said. "She may be just a freshman, but we thought she would
come in and do what Gomez did for us. If we had Takiyah we would
have been right in it with anybody."
* * *
In the final standings in the Pac-10, UCLA (13-14 overall, 8-10
Pac-10) ended the season in a three-way tie for sixth with USC and
Washington State. Last season, the Bruins were tied for eighth with
a record of 10-17 overall and 5-13 in the conference.
"I felt that we stepped it up from last year, but our goal was
to finish in the top half of the conference," Olivier said. "But I
think that it was a successful year, we were right in it until the
last two games."
While success was found at home – the 17-point
come-from-behind-in-three-minutes victory over Arizona and an 80-64
victory over USC – the Bruins floundered on the road, dropping
eight of nine conference home games.
"We’re going to have to find a way to make things better on the
road," Olivier said. "I am definitely going to reevaluate the
things that we did on the road and make it better for next
year."
SUSIE CHU/Daily Bruin
After leading the UCLA women’s basketball team in scoring with
16.9 points per game, Nikki Hilbert was voted to the All-Pac-10
first team.
Comments to webmaster@db.asucla.ucla.edu