Wildcats out to prove themselves at home
Arizona has dropped three of last five after January’s
last-minute loss to Bruins
By Emmanuelle Ejercito
Daily Bruin Staff
If revenge is a motivating factor, the UCLA women’s basketball
team has given Arizona a lot of incentive to vindicate itself on
the Wildcats’ home floor in Tucson tonight.
When the Wildcats stepped into Pauley Pavilion three-and-a-half
weeks ago, they had an 11-1 record. And with three minutes left in
the game it seemed as if Arizona was about to notch another
victory. But then the Bruins tightened up the defense and made
their biggest comeback of the season.
The UCLA defense forced 35 turnovers, 17 of which were steals.
The Bruins applied a full-court press and pressured Arizona during
the inbound pass. The defense allowed the Bruins to eliminate a
17-point deficit and tie the game with a Tawana Grimes jump shot
with 0:03 to go in regulation.
"Going to Arizona scares me a little," UCLA head coach Kathy
Olivier said. "I know that they feel that we stole one from them.
It’s not even a revenge factor, (Arizona head coach) Joan
(Bonvinci) is going to make it bigger than a revenge factor."
Said Bonvinci: "We’ve looked at this game for a long time and
now it is here and it is on our home court and we feel that we have
something to prove."
After its loss to UCLA, Arizona stumbled in subsequent games,
dropping three of the next five. Last weekend the Wildcats ended a
three-game losing streak with a win over conference basement
dwellers Arizona State.
"I think at times we were questioning ourselves defensively and
took some things for granted," Bonvinci said. "We went back to
doing what we did earlier in the year against Arizona State and
that’s why we won again."
Arizona has no need to question itself offensively though. The
Wildcats lead the conference in five categories including scoring
offense, field-goal percentage, three-point field goal percentage,
assists average and steals.
"When we spread our scoring around to three, four or five kids
who can get double figures in games, we’re a very difficult team to
go after," Bonvinci said. "We have good quickness in the back court
and we shoot well from the three-point range."
The Arizona back court includes point guard Brenda Pantoja. The
assist-leader of the Pac-10, she averages 8.8 assists per game. Not
that Arizona will have a dominating advantage at the point.
UCLA freshman point guard Erica Gomez matched up well against
the senior earlier in the season. While Pantoja had nine assists in
Arizona’s loss, Gomez, ranked third in the conference in assists,
had eight of her own.
"Brenda has had a great year, she’s improved so much, she’s
making good decisions, getting the ball to open players," Olivier
said, "But I feel that Erica is doing the same thing. The
difference is that Brenda is a senior and Erica is just a
freshman."
ANDREW SCHOLER / Daily Bruin
Point guard Erica Gomez must keep Arizona’s Brenda Pantoja under
wraps tonight.
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