The UCLA women’s basketball team had fallen to then-No. 12 Nebraska and lost a heartbreaker to No. 12 North Carolina in the first three games of the season, but Sunday afternoon was different.
UCLA had another shot at a highly ranked opponent, this time No. 10 Oklahoma, and it capitalized with a 82-76 win.
“There’s just those moments where you get to see young women grow in such incredible ways when you’ve been fighting for that growth and just banging your head up against the wall over some of the same things,” said coach Cori Close. “I’m just so thrilled for them to experience the growth that they’ve had today.”
Oklahoma (4-2) started the game aggressively attacking the basket, getting layups and free throws, and took a commanding 11-1 lead three minutes in.
But from that point, UCLA (2-2) began mounting its comeback behind its sixth-year senior forward Atonye Nyingifa, taking the lead with five minutes left in the first half. Nyingifa had 20 points and 10 rebounds at halftime, and finished with 28 points and 16 rebounds.
“Coach talked about the inches today, and I think that’s what really won today,” Nyingifa said. “The rebounding, the hustle plays and the togetherness we’ve been yearning for, it started in practice but it came into the game.”
The second half began with the Bruins and Sooners tied 43-43, and neither team was able to garner more than a five-point lead until sophomore guard Nirra Fields put the Bruins up six with five seconds left in the game.
Fields was the force behind the Bruins second-half push, scoring 18 points in the last 20 minutes, and finishing with 27 points and nine rebounds.
“We came into the game and just executed and just trusted the coach,” said Fields. “We thought that if we played the scouting well, we could beat them and that’s exactly what we did.”
Last game against North Carolina, Fields shot 4-20 from the field. She rebounded well from the poor shooting performance, shooting 10-16 against the Sooners, and attributed this improvement to more practice time.
“It’s just getting an extra 20 minutes before practice or after practice just to work on my shooting form and work on game-speed shots,” Fields said. “I just really focused on that this entire week and did the best I can.”
While the offense wasn’t always clicking in the game, especially in the first half, defense and offensive rebounds carried the Bruins to the win.
“It’s just a mental toughness to not allow the offensive end to affect the defensive end, but it’s not an easy thing to do as a player,” Close said. “We just worried about getting more possessions with passion plays and rebounds, controlling stops and eventually our offense came.”