After coming off a narrow defeat to defending national champion
Baylor, UCLA women’s basketball coach Kathy Olivier and her
coaching staff sat down with the players during practice to reflect
on their first regular-season game. Her tone wasn’t pedantic,
but more assuring that greater things are to come. More than
anything, Olivier was pleased with how the Bruins (0-1) responded
in front of a national-championship-caliber game. It reminded her
of the last time UCLA went to the NCAA Tournament two years ago,
played as an underdog, and nearly defeated Minnesota. But like her
players, Olivier has put the past behind her as the Bruins host BYU
(1-0) tonight at Pauley Pavilion. “Time to move on,”
she said. “That game showed us we can compete and we can do a
lot of good things. Hopefully, defensively we’ll have a
better showing. “(It was the) same type of atmosphere at
Minnesota, and we showed the same type of potential against Baylor.
We have a lot of promise and we have to show that against whomever
we play against.” The Bruins may be without senior guard Lisa
Willis, who will be a gametime decision Tuesday after having a
wisdom tooth removed Monday. She has been playing through the pain
for the past week. BYU returns two starters from last year’s
team, which finished with a 19-11 record but was ousted in the
first round of the Women’s NIT, where it lost to Gonzaga.
Once again, the Bruins will be tested in the post against 6-foot-1
senior forward Ambrosia Anderson. In BYU’s win over Cal State
Northridge, Anderson led her team with 25 points and nine rebounds.
UCLA will also have to deal with Dani Kubik, a 6-foot-3 junior
center. “We got in foul trouble early against Baylor,”
Olivier said. “We’re going to have to learn how to play
smart and do better on transition defense and
rebounding.”
SPARK OFF BENCH: The one question mark that still looms over
UCLA is its bench. In past years, UCLA’s role players have
been unable to produce quality minutes. Against Baylor, though,
freshman guard Ashlee Trebilcock provided a push. Trebilcock
recorded eight points on 3-for-6 shooting from the field in 26
quality minutes. No other bench player logged double-digit minutes
against the Lady Bears. Asked whether playing in front of
9,000-plus fans in her first regular-season game deterred her, the
second-team Parade Magazine All-American player said she tuned the
audience out. “Going into the weeks before, I thought it
would be a big problem, but it didn’t trip me out at
all,” Trebilcock said. “If anything, they relaxed me
because the people behind the basket were crazy kids that were just
saying stupid things. During the game, it was pretty easy to zone
people out.”
POST PLAYERS: After Baylor forward Sophia Young
rang off 26 points on 12 of 18 shooting, two Bruin post players
““ junior center Consuelo Lezcano and redshirt junior forward
Julia Pitts ““ were dearly missed in the loss. Lezcano, who
stands at 6-foot-4, was out with a separated right shoulder that
she suffered last Wednesday in practice. She is scheduled to have
an MRI done today. Pitts is still out with a left-knee injury that
has hampered her throughout her basketball career. She has been
making strides as of late and Olivier hopes she will come back by
late December. “We would love to have her back, the sooner
the better,” Olivier said. “I think if we have her back
by conference play, we’ll be grateful.”