There have been many instances in the past three years where
junior guard Noelle Quinn has shown how valuable of a player she is
to the UCLA women’s basketball team. Her performance in last
weekend’s victories over Stanford and California was just her
latest display of excellence. On Monday, Quinn was named U.S. Bank
Pac-10 player of the week for her 25-point, 10-rebound, four-assist
performance against Stanford and her 25-point, 11-rebound,
seven-assist game against Cal. “I had a very good weekend,
and I’m honored that they recognized me for my
performance,” Quinn said. “It was a whole team effort.
I’d give it (the award) to my whole team if I could.”
The games were a breath of fresh air for Quinn, who struggled
mightily in the Bruins’ road trip to the Bay Area one month
ago. During that trip, Quinn scored 11 points against Cal and eight
points against Stanford, two of her lowest-scoring outputs of the
year. Quinn, who has 75 assists and 46 turnovers on the year, had
just six assists compared to eight turnovers in that series. And
the Bruins lost both games. “I was physically not doing well
that weekend, but that’s no excuse,” Quinn said.
“On this team, I’m a leader and a scorer and if I
don’t play well, my team struggles.” “She knows
that she has to do more,” UCLA coach Kathy Olivier said.
“It’s hard because you don’t want to try and do
too much. She’s about her team and when her teammates are up
for the challenge, she rises to the occasion too.”
Fortunately for the Bruins, Quinn did everything anyone could have
asked for her and more to fit her bill as a team leader last
weekend and help the team avenge its earlier losses to the Bay Area
schools in two of the most critical games in UCLA’s season.
“Everything’s been starting to come together,”
Quinn said. “I’ve been on a little bit of a roll. When
I play better, our team does better as a whole.”
INSIDE GAME IMPROVES: While the Bruins yet
again received strong play this weekend from Quinn and senior
guards Nikki Blue and Lisa Willis, the post players had one of
their most productive stretches of the season. Junior forward
Amanda Livingston had 10 points against Stanford and Cal, freshman
center Chinyere Ibekwe had eight points and nine rebounds in a
combined 28 minutes of action in both games, and sophomore forward
Lindsey Pluimer scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds against
Cal on Sunday. “Lindsey was attracting attention, Amanda was
attracting attention, and Rey-Rey and all our posts really picked
it up this weekend,” Olivier said. “Anytime you have a
force inside, it helps.” Against Cal, Pluimer was
particularly impressive, scoring a season high in points and taking
some of the scoring load off of the Triple Threat. “Lindsey
was more assertive,” Olivier said. “It wasn’t
like she was sitting back waiting for the game to come to her; she
was being very aggressive and it showed with her numbers. In
addition to scoring, Pluimer aggressively attacked the offensive
glass and pulled down five offensive rebounds. “Offensive
boarding definitely helps our team,” Pluimer said.
“Every game I go in with mind-set to rebound defensively and
offensively, but especially offensively.”
INJURY UPDATE: Willis jammed her thumb during
the beginning of practice on Tuesday and sat out the rest of
practice to receive treatment. Willis is day-to-day, but will
likely play in this weekend’s road trip to Arizona, according
to Oliver. Redshirt junior forward Julia Pitts, who is still
recovering from knee surgery and did not play against Cal on
Sunday, practiced at full speed on Tuesday and will be available
against Arizona State on Thursday.