It will be homecoming weekend for two players on the UCLA women’s basketball team.
Freshman forward Christina Nzekwe and freshman center Regina Rogers will be playing in their home region for the first time in their collegiate careers when the Bruins (7-8, 2-2 Pac-10) travel to the Pacific Northwest to play Washington (6-9, 1-2) tonight and Washington State (3-11, 0-3) on Saturday.
Both Nzekwe and Rogers are from Seattle and were teammates at Chief Sealth High School, where they won two state championships before coming to UCLA.
“We have two girls from Seattle and both of them are very true to their roots,” coach Kathy Olivier said. “I think they will have a good focus to them. They represent UCLA in a positive way.”
Rogers is especially familiar with Washington athletics as there are several Husky athletes in her family.
Her father, Reggie Rogers, played basketball and football at Washington and her uncle Chester Dorsey holds the Washington record for career assist average.
Rogers says she is expecting to see a lot of familiar faces when the Bruins play the Huskies tonight.
“I’m excited to go home,” Rogers said. “I hear that there will be a big crowd. A lot of people have called and texted me and told me that they are going to the game.”
Similar to UCLA, Washington is a team filled with young players. Currently, the Huskies start two freshmen and two sophomores.
According to Nzekwe, she is already familiar with some of Washington’s young talent, including freshman guard/forward Katelan Redmon. Redmon, who is from Spokane, Wash., leads the Huskies in scoring with 12.2 points per game and is second in total rebounds.
“I know Katelan,” Nzekwe said. “I played with her in the all-star game. I know she is their leading scorer.”
UCLA continues to focus on its defense to win games. From previous experience, the Bruins know the Huskies bring energy to the game and have a home-team advantage at Bank of America Arena.
“They play up-tempo basketball and really get after it defensively,” Olivier said. “We have to make sure we defend because they can shoot the ball really well. They usually get a good crowd and it’s always really exciting when we go up there.”
After facing Washington, UCLA will head east to Pullman to face a struggling Washington State team.
Even though the Cougars have lost five straight games and have yet to win a Pac-10 matchup, the Bruins are not taking the game lightly.
“Anytime that you are playing a Pac-10 team, you need to be ready,” Olivier said. “They have a lot of scoring options, and if all of them get hot at the same time, they can be a very dangerous team.”
After beating No. 2 Stanford last week, the Bruins’ goal is to continue to move forward.
“We want to continue to grow as a team and continue to get better defensively,” Olivier said. “We made huge steps this weekend, but we can’t make huge steps and then go backward.”