Playing in the heart of Las Vegas, it was only appropriate that
the UCLA women’s basketball team needed a little bit of good
fortune to pull out a victory.
With the Bruins nursing a 66-58 lead against UNLV, junior
Gennifer Arranaga snatched a loose ball out of the air and buried a
circus shot from behind the backboard, inciting an 8-1 UCLA run
that put the game away.
“It was more luck than skill,” Arranaga said.
“I was more surprised than anyone that it went in.”
Coming off the bench, Arranaga earned all-tournament honors,
tallying 12 points on six-of-nine shooting as the Bruins (3-1)
upset UNLV (3-1) to win the championship game of the Las Vegas
Shootout last night at Cox Pavilion 72-64.
“It was a total team effort,” said UCLA head coach
Kathy Olivier, who played at UNLV for two seasons. “I was a
little nervous, but we took care of business down the stretch. This
was a good victory for us.”
Tournament MVP Michelle Greco notched 26 points, including six
huge free throws in the game’s final two minutes that
essentially iced the victory for the Bruins. The senior guard moved
into 10th on the UCLA all-time scoring list with 1241 career
points, passing former teammate Janae Hubbard.
“I can’t say enough about Michelle,” Olivier
said. “She’s a fantastic player. She handled the ball a
lot. For her to have only one turnover against an up-tempo defense
is a amazing.”
Greco had to carry the team offensively in the early going as
UCLA fell behind 20-12 with 11 minutes left in the first half. UNLV
senior Constance Jinks scored 10 of her 26 points in the first five
minutes of play while the Lady Rebels out-muscled the smaller
Bruins on the boards.
“It was a really physical game,” Arranaga said.
“They were very tenacious on the glass, and I think we were a
little intimidated in the early going, but the bench got us back
into it.”
With UCLA freshmen Nikki Blue and Julia Pitts a little rattled,
Olivier inserted Arranaga and Whitney Jones into the lineup, and
the move paid off immediately.
Despite just having rejoined the team less than a week ago when
the women’s soccer season ended, Jones scored 10 points in 19
minutes of action as the Bruins closed the half on a 29-14 run to
take a seven-point lead into the locker room.
The squad shot 76 percent in the first half, and then played
tenacious defense in the second half, as the Lady Rebels never got
within three points.
Greco had 18 points and six rebounds as UCLA defeated
Northwestern State on Saturday in the first round of the tournament
82-74.
“It is great to win and bring home some hardware,”
Arranaga said. “Getting these two wins gives us a lot of
momentum going into the rest of the preseason.”
The Bruins return home from the tournament to host St.
Mary’s on Tuesday night.