SAN JOSE “”mdash; Coming into the women’s basketball Pac-10
Tournament, much was made about senior guard Nikki Blue’s
last effort to lead her team into the NCAA Tournament.
Much was made about junior guard Noelle Quinn’s emergence
as one of the elite players in the country after a healthy regular
season.
But after a first half characterized by UCLA coach Kathy Olivier
as one of the worst the team has had this season, Lisa Willis
““ not Blue or Quinn ““ was the Bruin guard who elevated
her game to an untouchable level, keying UCLA’s 60-59 win
over No. 11 Arizona State in San Jose on Sunday night.
UCLA (19-10) scored a season-low 19 points in the first half,
and needed not just a boost, but a fire to be lit underneath it.
And Willis blew up. The senior converted three straight Arizona
State (24-6) possessions into steals, and made her first five field
goal attempts to open the second half. After that seven-minute
stretch, Willis’ clarity and vision were heightened.
“After I made my first couple of shots in the second half
I could just feel it. I thought “˜Okay, just shoot it
up,'” Willis said.
There was a small window of game time that saw the
transformation not only of Willis, but of her team as well.
“A lot of the outside stuff that I would normally see was
not even a factor anymore,” she said. “All I was
thinking about is what I could do to win this game, and everything
else that’s going on doesn’t matter.”
Finishing with game-highs of 27 points and six steals, Willis
helped erase a nine-point deficit, bringing UCLA’s chances at
a Pac-10 Tournament title back to life.
“That felt good just because of the game,” she said.
“If it was a game early in the season I would have been cool,
but we’re at a point in the season where it’s lose and
go home.”
Willis may have gotten her team back into the game, but the
final minutes of the game exceeded the emotions and scope that one
player can deliver.
There were 16 lead changes in the second half, and neither team
led by more than three points for those 17 minutes in the game.
Senior forward Kristen Kovesdy, who led the Sun Devils with 18
points, made four clutch free throws in the waning moments of the
game, to reclaim a one-point lead with only 1:12 left to play.
Quinn, who contributed 16 points and 10 rebounds, was fouled
driving to the basket and made both shots from the charity stripe.
The Sun Devils had 28.8 seconds to set up their half-court offense.
But the Bruins never even gave them an opportunity to get a clear
shot off.
“We felt like our whole season came down to the last 30
seconds,” Quinn said. “We went into the huddle and
coach just talked to us and told us to stay on it, stay aggressive,
no fouls and that’s what we did.”
With 2.8 seconds to play, junior forward Amanda Livingston
deflected a pass to Kovesdy out of bounds. Sun Devil guard Briann
January attempted to pass the ball inside, but never found a
receiver and the ball dribbled out of bounds to end any chance for
a dramatic last play.
“We didn’t make the pass to the person that was
open,” Arizona State coach Charli Turner Thorne said.
“We just didn’t execute it. We didn’t execute it
three times in a row. We didn’t execute the last eight
minutes of the game either.”
UCLA, the No. 3 seed in the tournament, beat California 80-63,
on Saturday morning to advance to the semifinals against Arizona
State. After losing in the opening round of the conference
tournament each of the last two seasons, UCLA will now play in the
championship game for the first time in the tournament’s
six-year history.
The Bruins will face the No. 13 Stanford Cardinal, who defeated
Arizona and USC to get to the final game, tonight. The winner is
rewarded with the conference’s automatic entrance into the
NCAA Tournament. However, UCLA’s two wins in the tournament
will likely ensure the team an at-large bid even if it loses to
Stanford.
The implications of the title match are hardly in the
background, but Olivier is trying to keep her players in the
moment, and not looking toward any postseason possibilities.
“We’re not going to enjoy it for 24 hours,”
Olivier said. “We’re going to enjoy it for four. And
then we are going to get our focus back on and see what we can do
for tomorrow.”