Thursday, January 16, 1997
W.HOOP:
Improved transition defense will be pivotal for UCLABy A. CinQue
Carter
Daily Bruin Contributor
Following a stay at home in which the Bruins split contests with
the Bay Area schools  falling to Stanford and defeating
California  UCLA will take its show on the road against
Arizona State (6-7, 0-3) tonight and Arizona (12-2, 2-1) on
Saturday.
After Stanford swept the Arizona and Los Angeles schools,
Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer was quoted as saying, "There
aren’t 25 schools in the country better than USC and Arizona,"
implying that those two schools had played against the No. 3
Cardinal tough enough to be ranked nationally.
UCLA (8-5, 2-2) is 1-2 versus ranked teams, defeating No. 9
Western Kentucky but losing to No. 11 Texas Tech at home. If
Arizona played well enough to be ranked, that should give the
Bruins some incentive because they have been playing their best
basketball against the best teams.
"It’s going to be a race down there at Arizona," UCLA head coach
Kathy Olivier said. "But we’re not overlooking ASU."
One area in which UCLA has needed improvement is transition
defense. Stanford had an abundance of uncontested buckets and UCLA
doesn’t want to put itself at that kind of disadvantage on the
road.
"Our transition defense better be there," Olivier said. "When
you’re young, you have a tendency to get down when you don’t score
and give each other high fives when you do. And we don’t want that
this week."
UCLA comes into the contests with a 3-3 road record after going
2-10 a year ago. Though this year’s standing is a vast improvement
over last year’s, the players are not satisfied with just three
wins in hostile territory. They expect to go to Arizona and get two
wins.
"We have to win," freshman Janae Hubbard said. "If we want to go
to the (NCAA) tournament, we have to win on the road. If we play
the way we’re capable of playing, we should beat both Arizona
schools on the road. It’s important for us to establish ourselves
to make our conference look good."
Assistant coach Amy Jalewalia spoke about what these road games
mean for the Bruins in the long run.
"After you get so far into the Pac-10, people start to separate
themselves from the rest of the pack," she said. "Since these games
are so pivotal for us, what we need to do on this trip is set a
precedent on the road and start to separate ourselves. These are
two very winnable games, but we’re going to take it one game at a
time out there."
In four games of conference play, Hubbard and Marie Philman have
stepped up their numbers in minimal minutes off the bench. Philman
is averaging five points and three rebounds in 14 minutes and
Hubbard is averaging 12 points and 8.5 boards in 17 minutes.
Freshman Takiyah Jackson has also improved her performance,
recording 8.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and two assists per game.
The juniors in the lineup, Aisha Veasley and Tawana Grimes, have
increased their numbers in Pac-10 play as well. Veasley is good for
6.8 points, 5.5 boards, two assists and two steals, and Tawana
Grimes is averaging 10.3 points, 3.8 boards, 3.5 assists and two
steals.
"With our players picking up their numbers, it shows that we’re
rolling in the direction we want to be in," Jalewalia said.
"Because our problem has been inconsistency."
While freshmen Maylana Martin and Carly Funicello haven’t
increased their numbers in the last four games, they have remained
consistently solid in their campaigns. Martin averages 18.7 points
and 6.7 boards while Funicello maintains 7.8 points and 3.3
boards.
"Carly’s still doing well defensively," associate head coach
Wilette White said. "They’re both (Funicello and Martin) doing
very, very good things for us."
"Our consistency has definitely been there with these two,"
Jalewalia said. "We just need to stay consistent on the road."
JUSTIN WARREN/Daily Bruin
Jennae Hubbard is a key asset for the Bruins.