You never know when you’ll be afforded a second chance in
life. But when a second chance was presented to freshman
sensation Noelle Quinn in the UCLA women’s basketball
team’s Saturday exhibition opener against Love and
Basketball, she knew exactly what to do.
With the score tied at 72 late in the game, Quinn airballed a
jump shot from the top of the key with eight seconds
left. Seven seconds later, Quinn found the ball in her hands
on nearly the same spot on the court, but she didn’t let this
chance slip away.
Quinn nailed a 17-foot jump shot at the buzzer to give UCLA a
dramatic 74-72 comeback victory over Love and Basketball at Pauley
Pavilion in a game the Bruins led for all of one second.
“It looked kind of off,” said Quinn of her
game-winning shot. “But when it went in and the buzzer
went off, I said, “˜Thank goodness,’ because I really
didn’t want to go into overtime.”
In a game that featured the return of six former Bruins,
including 2003 All-Pac-10 guard Michelle Greco, it was
Quinn’s coming-out party and fairy-tale finish in her first
collegiate game that stole the spotlight. Quinn, who played 37
minutes, led the Bruins with 22 points and dished out four assists
““ several in spectacular fashion.
The Bruins closed out the game on an 8-0 run capped by
Quinn’s game-winner.
“(Noelle) wanted the ball,” said coach Kathy Olivier
of the team’s final possession. “She shoots an
airball and she’s yelling for it right back. Those are
the type of players we have on this team now.”
Along with Quinn’s strong play, the gritty play and
intangibles provided by sophomore Lisa Willis and sophomore guard
Nikki Blue’s second-half resurgence were also key to the
Bruins’ come-from-behind victory.
“I think we’re good now that we got those first-game
jitters out of the way,” said Blue, who finished with 19
points and nine rebounds.
UCLA started out sluggish and was no match for Love and
Basketball on the inside, trailing by as many as 17 points in the
first half. But Olivier’s decision to implement
UCLA’s trademark full-court pressure near the end of the
first half seemed to stem the tide and change the momentum.
“Defense is going to generate a lot of what we do
offensively,” Olivier said.
Though she was sitting on the opponent’s bench for the
first time, Greco didn’t let the emotion of her homecoming
deter her play, finishing with a team-high 18 points and five
assists in 36 minutes. Greco, still a Bruin at heart, was not
all that upset about the loss.
“It’s hard to be disappointed when you lose against
your team,” Greco said. “I like to see them do well,
even if it is against me. I want to see us win the national
championship, I want to see us own Pac-10. (Love and
Basketball) was here to make them better. We don’t have
a championship to win. In that sense, I think we did our
job.”
And what of the last second-shot?
“There’s nobody better than Noelle to hit that
shot,” Greco said. “It was nice to see. I think
she is the one who is going to step up and be a leader on this
team.”