SAN JOSE “”mdash; Noelle Quinn’s right hamstring
didn’t just tighten up, but it threatened to put the clamp
down on UCLA’s chances to win the Pac-10 Tournament and the
automatic bid that comes with it.
The junior guard was feeling the effects of playing three games
in three consecutive days, and she limped off the court with 2:41
left in overtime. The grimace on her face and the limp in her step
left doubt as to whether or not she would be able to return. The
trainers rigorously stretched and massaged her legs to get her back
on the court, and she re-emerged just at the right time.
Quinn made arguably the two most decisive shots in UCLA’s
85-76 overtime win over No. 13 Stanford ““ one that tied the
game at the end of regulation and the other that gave UCLA its
ultimate lead with 48 seconds left ““ while playing on only
one good leg.
“We had three tough games in three days and my body was
really tired,” Quinn said. “I didn’t want to be
on the bench. I couldn’t. I did that last year. I am here to
play this year.”
Quinn missed the last half of her sophomore campaign after
tearing her right knee’s meniscus. Memories of that idleness,
watching her team struggle without her in the lineup, were more
than enough motivation.
But for this game, she scrambled to get back on the floor so
that UCLA wasn’t without two of its three premier players
once senior guard Lisa Willis, who had carried UCLA to the title
game and matched Stanford counterpart Candice Wiggins shot-for-shot
in the second half, fouled out with 1:59 left in overtime.
“I just sucked it up and went back out there and the pain
just went away once I was out there,” said Quinn, who led the
Bruins with 22 points and eight rebounds.
Willis was overwhelmed by emotions when she fouled out, tears
flowing down her cheeks while she sat at the end of the bench. The
roller coaster experience of the last three games had finally
pushed her to the breaking point, but she had a calm sense that the
game was in secure hands.
“I knew we could handle it,” she said. “There
would be no drop-off. We had that focus. There was no doubt in my
mind.”
Having Quinn for a teammate can instill that kind of confidence
in the surrounding talent.
Quinn put the Bruins in the lead for good upon returning to the
game, with an 8-foot floater that found that bottom of the net. The
result was a 78-76 lead that would not be broken.
“I knew I had to come through for my teammates. I knew I
had to put it in,” Quinn said.
“That was a big shot at the end, girl,” UCLA coach
Kathy Olivier said to her star following the game.
UCLA (20-10, 12-6 Pac-10) earned the conference’s
automatic entrance into the NCAA Tournament over regular season
champion Stanford (23-7, 15-3) because of no more than two or three
possessions, Olivier said. Not so coincidentally, those were the
ones when Quinn had the ball in her hands.
“There are different points you can look at as huge
possessions and those ones where (Quinn) made the shots don’t
get bigger,” Olivier said.