W. hoops crushed
by Stanford, 88-49
By Hye Kwon
Kicking off one of the most challenging road trips of the
season, the UCLA women’s basketball team suffered a 88-49 loss to
No. 4 Stanford in Palo Alto on Thursday night.
It was a case of too much talent from a very refined Cardinal
team, which had four different players in double figures. The
Bruins (7-9 overall, 2-5 in Pac-10) simply could not get anything
going, as they put up just 15 points in the first half while the
Cardinal tallied 47.
"We came out a little intimidated," UCLA head coach Kathy
Olivier said. "We weren’t aggressive at all."
The Cardinal were not only proficient at scoring but played good
defense as well. They forced the Bruins to 26 turnover and also
kept Kisa Hughes from having her usual game.
"They were fronting Kisa and putting a lot of pressure on the
passer," Olivier said. "We couldn’t get Kisa the ball."
Nonetheless, Hughes led the Bruins with 11 points and nine
rebounds.
For Stanford (15-1, 6-0), Jamila Wideman started the game in
place of Kate Starbird who sat out with a minor injury. Wideman
scored 11 points and distributed eight assists.
The Cardinal shot the ball extremely well all game long. They
made 62 percent of their shots, which included four out of nine
shooting from the three-point line.
Bouncing back from the devastating loss against Stanford will be
tough, especially when the Bruins must take on California Saturday
night at Berkeley. The Bears are traditionally tough at Harmon Gym
where they have won 5 out of 8 games this season.
This season, California (6-9, 1-5) have been powered by a couple
of foreign players. Jackie Lear, whose hometown is Gold Coast,
Australia, leads the league in steals with 4.2 per game. In her
third consecutive season of starting at the off-guard position,
Lear has been averaging 14.1 points per game.
The leading scorer on the team is the former two-time Junior
College All-American Eliza Sokolowska. The junior-who is originally
from Warsaw, Poland- is averaging 19.9 points per game and is also
dishing out 6.3 assists per game.