Usually standing at 5 feet 6 inches, freshman guard Jordin Canada stood a little bit taller on Saturday afternoon.
Canada was the first of the Bruins to climb the ladder in the Charleston Civic Center and snip off her segment of the net, where just moments before the freshman’s last-minute layup and pair of free throws capped a 31-point outing and sealed UCLA’s 62-60 win over West Virginia (23-15, 7-11 Big 12) in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament title game.
UCLA (19-18, 8-10 Pac-12) headed into the championship matchup riding the momentum of a five-game win streak, something the Bruin were unable to foster throughout the span of a shaky regular season.
“At the beginning of the year, we would lose all the close games,” said redshirt sophomore guard Kari Korver. “We’d be in it with a really great team. Then they would make a run and punch us, and we couldn’t punch back.”
Despite 10 lead changes on Saturday in what turned out to be a neck-and-neck battle, the Bruins punched back against the Mountaineers.
The first half was a back-and-forth struggle as both UCLA and West Virginia struggled to create any runs for a majority of the first 20 minutes. The Bruins headed into halftime with a 30-28 advantage after a buzzer-beater layup by Canada capped a late 8-2 run in the two minutes preceding the break.
Foul trouble caused anxiety for the Bruins throughout the game, especially in the first period. UCLA’s starting bigs, senior center Luiana Livulo and senior center/forward Corinne Costa, found themselves limited after early miscues.
Costa ended her career with 4:31 left in play after fouling out, finishing with 6 points and 6 blocks.
Additionally, junior guard Nirra Fields’ foul total climbed to four with just over 13 minutes left in play, limiting her in the second period and forcing the Bruins to adapt without her on the court.
Canada was an integral component of that adaptation. The Pac-12 Freshman of the Year finished the game tallying exactly half of the Bruins’ total and smashing her previous career-high of 19. Her standout performance also included 13 free throws.
Although the spotlight often shone on Canada, the freshman said the game was an opportunity to give back to those whose college basketball days have now expired.
“This was a very big game, not just because it was a championship game, but also for the seniors,” Canada said. “We knew it was going to be a hard game, but we had to go out there and play our best for the seniors.”
Coach Cori Close said Canada’s ability to rack up points was largely due to West Virginia devoting a majority of its defensive efforts on preventing Korver and Fields from getting touches.
Fields, who usually serves as a consistent high scorer for the Bruins, was 0-9 from the field. Her only two points of the game came from the line.
Korver was also quiet in the first period, only tallying two points. Her first 3-pointer came with 4:19 left in the game, tying the score at 53.
“When Nirra and Kari play as well as they did the entire tournament and West Virginia has to totally face guard them, that opens up the driving lanes for Jordin,” Close said. “Kari and Nirra’s performance isn’t going to show up in the stat sheets, but without their consistency, those driving lanes don’t exist.”
Freshman guard Kelli Hayes also made an impact in the final minutes, stealing the ball and journeying coast to coast to score a bucket, allowing the Bruins to extend their lead to four.
“Towards the end of the game, I so badly wanted to call the perfect play,” Close said. “But the bottom line was, this was Jordin’s game, and I needed to not over-coach, get out of her way and let her make the plays that needed to happen for us to win.”
Canada did just that.
At the 44-second mark, WVU applied full-court pressure in an attempt to stop the Bruins from extending their lead any further. Yet, Canada’s reverse layup and immediate steal within the same play pushed the Bruins’ lead to five points.
Despite a last-chance 3-pointer by WVU, the largely Mountaineer crowd fell silent as they watched the final seconds expire.
“Me and Kelli were subbing in and out at the end of the game,” Korver said. “At the very end, with 18 seconds left, it kind of felt like we were going to win the game … I remember just smiling at her as I was coming out of the game, knowing that we had it.”
UCLA left the WNIT with its first national-level trophy in program history and its first championship title since the 2006 Pac-10 championship.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been a part of a team that has grown more in three weeks,” Close said. “Usually you are what you are come March, but we didn’t stop. We kept growing.”