Boredom might never have been so comforting.
As the UCLA women’s basketball team slashed its way out to
a staggering 17-point lead within the first eight minutes of the
game against Washington State, the perennial doormat of the Pac-10,
coach Kathy Olivier noticed that her club was starting to look a
little sluggish.
“We started to look bored out there,” Olivier
said.
In the Bruins’ 77-50 drubbing of the Cougars, their only
legitimate gripe was not always maintaining a high level of
intensity, as the conference schedule whittles away and the last
remaining contenders emerge.
UCLA (14-9, 9-5 Pac-10) built an early 19-2 lead, with players
seeming to do whatever they wanted on the court and illustrating
their superior athletic abilities with alley-oops and no-look
passes.
However, the team promptly sat on its cushion for the remainder
of the half, and Washington State (7-15, 1-12) narrowed the gap to
six points.
When the scoreboard intimated that the competition was closer
than it appeared to the naked eye, UCLA kicked into a gear its
opponent just didn’t seem to possess.
Junior guard Noelle Quinn was yet again the catalyst. Although
her streak of six consecutive games with at least 20 points was
halted, Quinn ignited two key Bruin runs that proved to be the
difference in the contest.
After finishing the first half in lackluster fashion, Quinn
registered three field goals in as many minutes to put an end to
any thoughts of a Cougar upset.
“At the half, the focus was on crashing the boards more
and being more attentive on defense,” said Quinn, who
finished with 15 points, four assists and three rebounds.
If Quinn was UCLA’s table-setter, senior guard Lisa Willis
was its closer. She was limited in the first half to only four
points, but exploded in the next period and ended with a
game-leading 17 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
Senior point guard Nikki Blue came just shy of a double-double,
with 15 points and nine assists. Beyond the triple threat, every
UCLA player was able to see game time, with the Bruins’ lead
no longer in danger.
The relative ease of the win looms larger when the overall
picture of the conference’s postseason chances comes into
focus. While the Bruins disposed of the last-place Cougars, the
Washington Huskies and the USC Trojans were entrenched in a
double-overtime battle across town at the Sports Arena.
Washington pulled out the 87-79 double-overtime win over USC and
now will take on UCLA at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday afternoon in a
game that could affect the postseason chances of three or four
Pac-10 teams.
In a theoretical universe, the Bruins have been put in a
favorable scenario. As the Huskies and the Trojans beat up on each
other in an emotionally draining game, the Bruins come off a pair
of blowout wins against a pair of the conference’s
bottom-feeders.
Several of the players, as well as Olivier, confided that
preparing for Washington has required a heightened intensity that
just is not the same for Washington State. It is for that reason
alone that the Bruins are not concerning themselves with what makes
sense on paper. They are instead concerning themselves with what
needs to happen at Pauley Pavilion.
“Even if they didn’t beat up on each other and
Washington still comes in fresh, we are on a mission,” Willis
said. “We kind of feel like our backs are against the wall.
We’re not in a panic mode, but we are trying to win
out.”
Quinn goes into the Washington game seeking a bit of redemption.
She had her worst performance of the year in a 96-75 loss to the
Huskies back in mid-January, scoring only five points in the
game.
Asked if she’s seeking a little bit of payback, she just
smirked and said, “Oh yeah.”