Time runs out for Bruins
W. hoops beats Cal, loses to Cardinal in down-to-wire game
By Emmanuelle Ejercito
Daily Bruin Staff
The UCLA women’s basketball team began the second half of
Pacific 10 play on the right foot, stepping all over California on
Friday night, but was tripped up by No. 4 Stanford Sunday.
The Bruins played an emotionally charged game against the
Cardinal in front of a record Pauley Pavilion crowd of 5,512. And
once again, it came down to the very last second to determine the
winner.
UCLA trailed for most of the first half. Stanford’s Kate
Starbird and Vanessa Nygaard found the basket early, opening up the
game with back-to-back three-pointers.
The Cardinal led by as many as nine in the first half, but the
Bruins clawed their way back. At half-time, UCLA cut the Stanford
lead down to four, 32-28.
A few moments later, UCLA (10-10 overall, 5-6 Pac-10) took the
lead for the first time in the game when Nickey Hilbert stole the
ball and ran to the other end of the court for an easy fast break
lay-up.
But Stanford (18-2, 11-0) reclaimed the lead soon after,
embarking on an 11-2 run. Down 52-44, UCLA again chipped away at
the Cardinal lead. After a couple of strong inside plays by Aisha
Veasley that led to four points and Hilbert rebounding her own miss
to put up a jump shot, the Bruins were behind 54-52.
However, Stanford’s Charmin Smith responded with a three-pointer
with 4:35 left. Soon, the Cardinal lead was back up to eight with
four minutes left.
But the Bruins would not quit. Hilbert, who had a team-high 18
points, scored six unanswered points, making the score 60-58 with
30 seconds left on the clock.
The Cardinal had to call two time-outs on the ensuing inbound,
and when they tried to lob a pass down the court, Zrinka Kristich
was there to intercept it. But Starbird stole the ball and with 10
seconds to go, Hilbert fouled guard Jamila Wideman. Wideman scored
on the front end of the one and one free throw, but missed the
second, and Kristich was there to grab one of her 11 rebounds.
With 0:01 left on the game clock, Gomez shot a three that looked
headed for the hoop, but bounced off the rim. Stanford was called
for a foul after the attempt and Gomez was sent to the line facing
a 61-58 deficit.
Gomez made the first free throw, but hit only the glass on the
second, allowing Stanford to inbound the ball with one second left.
UCLA again applied the pressure, and the Cardinal lofted it to the
other end of the court. But Kristich touched the ball and time
expired, with the scoreboard reading 61-59 Cardinal.
"I think that Stanford has the aura to them that they are better
than everyone else, and I truly think that our players don’t think
that," UCLA head coach Kathy Olivier said. "Going into the game …
we believed that we could beat them. We don’t think that they are
all that."
Against Cal (5-14, 1-9) two freshmen came up with key plays
while two seniors played hard against the glass to help the Bruins
overcome an 11-point deficit and snap a three-game losing streak,
71-66.
"I think that we had exceptional leadership from our seniors,
namely our post players, Kisa (Hughes) and Zee (Kristich)," Olivier
said. "They really wanted the basketball and made a
difference."
Both Hughes and Kristich average just over seven rebounds per
game, but Friday night each grabbed 11 boards, including a combined
total of 15 defensive rebounds.
Kristich, the leader of the Pac-10 in field goal percentage, was
reliable in the field, hitting 10 of 13 attempts.
Meanwhile, Hughes was tough on the other end of the court,
snatching a game-high four steals and blocking one shot.
Something about playing Cal must inspire Gomez. Earlier in the
season, Gomez tallied a career-high 24 points at Berkeley. Although
she scored only eight points Friday night, the 5-foot-9-inch
freshman cut through defenders like a knife to make the tough
basket over defenders or dish out one of her 10 assists to an open
teammate for an easy shot.
In the first half, neither team could build a sizable lead. With
the Bruins shooting only 33 percent to Cal’s 50 percent, it was
Mari Burningham who helped UCLA stay close.
"Mari Burningham came off the bench in the first half and saved
us," Olivier said. "Zee got into foul trouble so we didn’t want to
play her a lot in the first half. Mari came in and made things
happen."
Burningham had a hand in eight of UCLA’s final 14 first-half
points, including a toss to an unguarded Hughes who banked it for
two.
The lead went back and forth until the end of the half when
Cal’s Kelley Tatum scored the last 12 points for the Golden Bears
by sinking four straight treys from the left corner. Going into
intermission Cal had the lead 32-26.
Rolling into the second half with the momentum generated by
Tatum’s threes, Cal scored five straight points, including another
Tatum shot from beyond the three-point arc. The mini-run gave the
Bears an 11-point lead.
UCLA’s second half comeback was fueled by good shooting and good
defense. The Bruins improved their shooting percentage to 50
percent while holding Cal to a 32 percent clip. UCLA also forced
seven more turnovers than it gave up.
PATRICK LAM
Nickey Hilbert’s 18 points were not enough to push the Bruins
past Stanford Sunday.
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