Near the midway point of the first half, UCLA senior guard Tierra Henderson snatched a steal and then took it all the way to the other end to make a lay up in traffic.
Shortly thereafter, with 11:11 left in the half, UCLA committed its seventh team foul, putting Team SRP in the bonus for the rest of the half.
And about a minute later the Bruins forced three consecutive steals and turned them into six quick points. That little sequence tells more than the 107-63 final score of Sunday’s exhibition basketball game against Team SRP.
The 2008 UCLA women’s basketball is looking to establish its identity as a team that will play aggressive defense, force turnovers, and score off those turnovers in an up-tempo offense.
But with that aggressive style of play also comes the foul whistle, a sound the Bruins heard 21 times on the day.
“Most of our fouls came from on-the-ball defense,” coach Nikki Caldwell said. “That’s an area we definitely can improve in. If we’re shooting the gap and we run into a player, I have no problem with that because we’re being aggressive in that regard. But our one-on-one defense penetration is an area that we always have to strive to get better at, and I thought we had some really great possessions off that.”
Sunday’s game was largely a tale of two halves. The Bruins went into halftime up only one, 38-37.
But the Bruins came out with a vengeance in the second half, upping their tempo and defensive pressure, and eventually outscoring Team SRP 69-26 in the latter period.
The difference was defense.
“The first half, we really weren’t pleased because the score; we were only up by one,” Henderson said. “But the second half, we made changes in our defense and pushed up tempo which gave us a boost.”
Henderson said that learning this new style of disruptive defense has taken some work.
“Defense is still one of our weaker points because last year defense wasn’t emphasized, so coming in this year and having it emphasized is kind of a big adjustment,” Henderson said.
The Bruins will look to keep fine-tuning those adjustments as they get ready to open their regular season against Cal State Fullerton on Sunday.
“I know they’re ready to showcase what they’re working on,” Caldwell said.