Before her team’s trip to the Bay Area this past weekend,
UCLA women’s basketball coach Kathy Olivier set two simple
objectives for the Bruins.
For the road trip to be considered a success, UCLA had to earn
at least a split and someone had to step up in the absence of the
injured Noelle Quinn.
Mission accomplished.
Behind a career-high 23 points from sophomore Amanda Livingston
and a dominating performance from Nikki Blue, the Bruins snapped
their three-game losing streak Saturday with a convincing 85-70
victory over California.
Accompanying the win was a return of a sense of normalcy for
UCLA, who had labored through a hectic week leading up to the game
against the Golden Bears.
“I was just so happy we won, and all we did is beat
Cal,” Olivier said. “It just felt good to get back on
track again. It’s been a difficult week.” Getting swept
by the Arizona schools at home, losing Quinn to injury for six
weeks, and getting thoroughly pounded by No. 5 Stanford had thrown
the Bruins a bit off-kilter.
Yet, for at least a day, the frustrations dissipated and the
smiles reemerged, as the Bruins (12-6, 6-3 Pac-10) capitalized on
the opportunity of overpowering a mediocre Cal team (8-10,
2-7).
And no one took bigger advantage of the situation than
Livingston.
Coming into the season, Livingston was thought to be
UCLA’s best option on the inside to be a force on offense.
However, after 17 games, in which she’s started all of them,
Livingston’s numbers did not live up to expectations, only
averaging 6.4 points per game.
That’s what made her 23-point outburst Saturday not only
timely, but long-time overdue. The forward easily bulldozed her way
through her Cal defenders, converting on 11 of 15 attempts from the
field in the best game of her young Bruin career.
“(Livingston) did a great job at Cal,” Olivier said.
“She worked her tail off.”
Most of Livingston’s damage came in the second half, as
she almost single-handedly turned a three-point Bruin deficit at
halftime into a double-digit UCLA lead, scoring 17 points in the
final 17 minutes.
And for once, UCLA’s inside game was equally as potent as
its perimeter game.
With Livingston controlling the paint, Blue patrolled the
perimeter, easily getting the better of her matchup with Cal guard
Kristin Iwanaga. The junior compiled her most impressive statline
of the season, amassing 20 points (7-for-13 FG), a career-high 14
assists and eight rebounds.
Without Quinn on the floor, Blue has had to assume even more
responsibilities as leader and floor general, and has made the
conscious effort to get more Bruins involved in the offense.
As a result, players like Lauren Pedersen, Shaina Zaidi and
Ortal Oren have become more incorporated in the offense, combining
to score 18 points on Saturday.
“Nikki just said “˜get on,’ and took everyone
on her back,” Olivier said.
With a road trip to Oregon on the horizon later this week,
Olivier knows that her team will need to duplicate Saturday’s
performance if the Bruins want to complete their next objective
““ coming back to Pauley Pavilion with 14 wins under their
belt.
“We need to steal one on the road somewhere,”
Olivier said. “If we can come back with two wins,
that’d be great.”