Senior guard Michelle Greco is confident the UCLA women’s
basketball team can improve its 1-1 record.
“We just need to build more confidence,” she said,
“and there’s nothing better than doing that on the
road.”
The Bruins will have another opportunity to prove themselves
away from Pauley Pavilion this weekend as they travel to Las Vegas
for their second tournament of the season hosted by UNLV. Saturday,
UCLA will play Northwestern State (1-0) on Saturday and either UNLV
(1-0) or Texas El Paso (1-1) on Sunday.
“Playing (UNLV) would be a good match for us because our
teams are so similar,” said UCLA head coach Kathy Olivier, an
alumna and former women’s basketball player at UNLV.
“We can play up tempo defense with them.”
But first, UCLA must defeat Northwestern State, who amassed 22
wins last year and has defeated Texas A&M, 65-59, in its only
regular season game of the year.
“We will create our offense from our defense,” head
coach Kathy Olivier said. “We just need to stay out of foul
trouble.”
Foul trouble plagued the Bruins last weekend and was a huge
factor in their 70-66 loss to the University of Hawai’i last
weekend.
“Our starting lineup is really quick,” senior guard
Natalie Nakase said. “We will do well if we work our running
game, get our rebounds, and make fast breaks.”
The Bruin starting lineup, according to Olivier though, is yet
to be determined and will be decided after this week’s
practices.
Freshman Ortal Oren will play for the first time this season on
Sunday after being deemed ineligible for the first three games of
the season for playing in a professional-level league this summer.
Junior Whitney Jones also returned to practice this week since the
women’s soccer season has ended. She will travel with the
team and may play this weekend as well.
“If we play our game, we hold our team’s own
destiny,” Greco said. “We just need to focus on what we
need to do to win.”
And this weekend, the Bruins plan to do exactly that.