In their final regular season game of the year, the women’s basketball team could not hold on to an early lead and fell to the Cal Golden Bears 88-69 Saturday in Berkeley.
The Bruins (13-17, 7-11 Pac-10) coughed up a 17-point lead and gave up 60 second-half points, finishing the season seventh in the Pac-10.
UCLA held a 39-28 advantage at halftime but committed too many turnovers after the break and could not stop the Bears’ offense as Cal (22-7, 12-6 Pac-10) shot 62 percent in the second half.
In her final regular-season game as a Bruin, senior Noelle Quinn led the team with her 28th career double-double, putting up 19 points and 10 rebounds. Junior forward Lindsey Pluimer added 18 points but nobody else for the Bruins had more than nine.
“Noelle (Quinn) did her thing and Lindsey (Pluimer) made some shots,” UCLA coach Kathy Olivier told CalBears.com. “We just didn’t have anyone show up offensively today.”
Cal’s five starters took all but one shot and all scored in double digits. Cal coach Joanne Boyle did not hold back after the game, calling the Bears’ offensive performance the best she’s seen this season.
“I think the guards just felt relaxed and much more comfortable,” Boyle told CalBears.com. “The basket got bigger because they weren’t so pressured, and, you talk about everybody contributing ““ we had five players in double figures. … If we didn’t have a shot, we just ran the high-low. I felt that this was the best our offense has clicked all year.”
The high-low for the Bears constantly burned the Bruins as Cal forward Ashley Walker and center Devanei Hampton combined for 39 points and eight assists.
“Hampton and Walker were extremely aggressive,” Olivier said. “They high-lowed us to death. They were hungry. They played hard. Their shooting from the outside in the second half was the difference. It stretched out the defense and allowed them to get the ball inside more. They stayed within their game. They were very poised and had a lot of good looks.”
For the Bruins, the lack of pressure defense in the second half may have been the difference, as UCLA only forced three turnovers after the break. Cal only had 17 points with less than three minutes to go in the first half but in the final 24 minutes, they scored 71.
“The first half we did a great job defensively,” Olivier said. “We were extremely active. We got a lot of shots inside, and we kept out of foul trouble. In the second half, we got some quick fouls, and we lost our aggressiveness. Cal took advantage and pounded the ball inside.”
As have typified most of the Bruins’ games this season, UCLA had a bad stretch toward the end of the game. They only hit three shots from the floor between 8:33 and 1:08 left in the game as the deficit climbed from six to 23 points.
UCLA will now go into the Pac-10 Tournament next weekend as the seventh seed and will play 10th-seeded Washington State in the opening round on Friday. The Cougars are the only team the Bruins have beaten twice this season, in two close games both decided by three points.