UCLA women’s basketball coach Cori Close didn’t need to be verbose to express how it felt not to finish the weekend’s trip to Arizona with two
wins: “It stinks.”
But an elaboration upon that answer makes it clear why she feels that way. Her players fought hard, did everything she asked them to, but at the end of the day things just didn’t go in their favor.
“I actually am very proud of their heart and their fight and their togetherness today, and so I just was really mad that the results didn’t reward them for that,” Close said.
After besting the University of Arizona Wildcats 67–61, the Bruins just needed one more win against the Arizona State University Sun Devils in Tempe, Ariz. to cap off a perfect weekend.
It seemed like fate had other plans, as the Bruins fell to the Sun Devils 59-57.
But something that illustrates the team’s efforts over the weekend better than a coach’s endorsement for both games is the rebounding statistic.
According to Close, UCLA entered this weekend’s competition as underdogs in that category, being the last-ranked rebounding team in the Pac-12. Despite those odds, the Bruins showed that numbers don’t always tell the story, as they outrebounded both Arizonan opponents.
Although the Bruins started off strong against the Sun Devils it wasn’t long before they entered a slump. After going 9-of-31 from the field, UCLA’s lead became a six-point deficit at the end of the half. But despite the poor shooting performance, Close wasn’t worried.
“Your goal on offense is to create good open shots that you think are high percentage shots for your team, and we were creating those,” Close said. “They just weren’t going in. So I didn’t spend much time on that – I actually just said, ‘Hey, those are going to fall. Let’s just talk about the things we have control over.’”
And just as Close predicted, the UCLA’s spell of bad luck started to dissipate, and a few minutes into the second half, the Bruins started to outshoot the Sun Devils.
Even though the Bruins managed to find their shooting rhythm, there was still one aspect of their game that seemed out of sync.
The Bruins, usually likely to force turnovers out of their opponents, found themselves on the other end this game. An uncharacteristically high 16 turnovers for UCLA were enough to cost them a victory against an ASU team they outrebounded.
According to sixth-year senior forward Atonye Nyingifa, the Bruins had trouble adjusting to the Sun Devils’ defense. But with losses come lessons, and according the Nyingifa the Bruins did not leave Sunday’s game empty-handed.
“Their pressure kind of caused us to turn the ball over more than we would like,” Nyingifa said. “I think the next time we do play we’ll be ready for that kind of intensity from their defense.”
Consistent with the theme of the season, the team found a way to continue growing as they continue to turn the pages of this year’s season, and it starts with focusing on what went right during the week – rebounding.
“This weekend we did a great job outrebounding our opponents,” said sophomore guard Nirra Fields. “Just coming out of these two games this week, we’re growing on rebounding more, getting second opportunities so we can get more shots over our opponents, and just really turning up our defense, especially when it’s hard to stay focused.”