After the Bruins and Women of Troy faced off on Jan. 17, it was the postgame fireworks that overshadowed the game, which was a 70-63 victory for USC.
So when the second matchup between the crosstown rivals came around, nearly a month later, it is quite possible that UCLA women’s basketball coach Nikki Caldwell had pushed the negative comment made by USC coach Michael Cooper to the back of her mind.
But the same cannot be said for the Den.
Even before the game began, which turned out to be a 74-56 win for the Bruins, and throughout the game’s entirety, the UCLA student cheering section and UCLA band showered Cooper with taunts.
“Hey Coop, Kareem was better!”
“Hey Coop, curse at me!”
“Nice air ball No. 24! Reminds me of Coop!”
But controversy aside, Caldwell and the Bruins avenged their early Pac-10 season loss to the Women of Troy and now have a stranglehold on the No. 2 position in the Pac-10 standings, two games ahead of Oregon, Cal and USC, all tied for third at 7-5, with UCLA at 9-3.
And after the game, Caldwell remained coy about Cooper’s now-infamous two-word jab at the Bruins.
“You know, I’m from the old school,” she said. “Everybody’s entitled to their opinion. But my mom always told me if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. So, it’s a good win at UCLA.”
But despite the bombardment of jeers sent Cooper’s way, the former Lakers and former Sparks coach commented that he is more than accustomed to ridicule during away games.
“(It was) no different than any other arena we go into,” Cooper said. “Teams don’t like us. Fans want their home team to beat us, and that’s what (UCLA) did.”
And Cooper was correct ““ the Bruins gave their fans exactly what they wanted.
UCLA pounced on the Women of Troy, opening up an 11-point lead midway through the first half, a lead that would stretch to 19 at halftime. And the key to UCLA’s big lead at halftime was its full-court pressure, which forced USC to commit 14 turnovers in the first half alone, as opposed to three for the Bruins.
An impressed Caldwell praised her team’s defensive efforts after the game.
“I thought that our team really took an aggressive, intense approach to this game,” Caldwell said.
“I think the one thing about this team is their ability to play together. When they want to, they can really do some great things,” she said.
The Women of Troy turned their play around in the second half, outscoring UCLA by one and only committing four turnovers, while forcing the Bruins to turn the ball over 13 times.
But the 19-point halftime deficit turned out to be just too much for USC to overcome, and UCLA senior guard Erica Tukiainen accredited the Bruins being able to sustain their intensity for the entire game to the 8,006 fans in attendance, the fifth-largest crowd for a women’s game in Pauley Pavilion history.
“It was just a great energy and that really just got us going,” Tukiainen said. “It’s fun, it’s exciting. Usually, you can hear a pin drop, and now it’s just clapping.”
In addition to their effort on the defensive side of the ball, the Bruins also turned in a stellar performance on the boards, out-rebounding the Women of Troy 44-29.
“Our defensive effort, that’s what we hang our hat on,” Caldwell said. “Our defensive play and our board play.”
The most notable difference in the second matchup between the Bruins and Women of Troy: Cooper’s postgame comments. When asked for his opening statements on Saturday, the USC coach responded in a slightly different manner.
“Opening statement: UCLA kicked our butt.”