Seattle — In the span of one week, it is both the city of setbacks and the city of rekindled ambition.
UCLA women’s basketball left the Emerald City on Saturday afternoon after a hard loss to cap off its regular season, but the Bruins will fly back later this week to test their postseason drive in the Pac-12 tournament.
The Bruins’ last showdown – a 74-61 loss to Washington – was the product of initial cold shooting coupled with poor ball control and an inability to heat up on the offensive end during the second period.
“We got the shots we needed in both the start of the game and (at the start of) the half, and we didn’t make them,” said coach Cori Close. “My job as a coach is to get them opportunities to get good shots. And it is their job as players to grow into being more and more efficient with the shots that they get.”
The Bruins (12-17, 8-10) started out the worst they have all season, not hitting the target in their first eight attempts while committing four turnovers. UCLA’s first points came after almost seven minutes had expired. Redshirt sophomore guard Kari Korver kept the Bruins afloat with 12 points in the first half. She finished the game with four drained shots from beyond the arc and 15 total points.
Efforts on the defensive end allowed the Bruins to come within four points of the Huskies (22-8, 11-7) at the halfway mark. However, the Bruins were unable to build back enough momentum to threaten the opposition despite consistent defense.
Korver said that the second-half drawback was a collective inability to finish on offense and hold onto the ball.
“We were able to crawl back into the game in the first half,” she said. “In the second half, we couldn’t finish our shots. … We had turnovers, and they were able to capitalize off of those.”
Freshman forward Lajahna Drummer and redshirt junior forward Kacy Swain matched their season-best rebounding efforts, with 11 and 10 boards respectively. Although the Bruins outrebounded the Huskies 45-40, they committed 19 turnovers. Washington was able to grab 21 points off of UCLA mistakes.
After the loss to Washington, UCLA ended their season sixth in the Pac-12 and will face 11th-seeded Arizona in the first round of the tournament on March 5.
The Bruins said that, should they advance, they are aware that vigor on defense will be an important asset in stopping strong offensive teams from running away with points.
“I’m very confident knowing that our defense will help us,” said junior guard Nirra Fields. “Defense is something that is going to make us go far in this tournament. … It will continue to grow.”
UCLA finished off the regular season with more losses than wins. Although the Bruins’ ranking indicates their initial seeding, their regular season record doesn’t rule them out for the tournament title.
“We know that our season is on the line right here,” Close said. “It’s do or die, and we want to be playing our best when our best is needed. … Our best is needed now.”