During women’s basketball’s first exhibition game last week, the Bruins pummeled Vanguard to a degree not seen in years. When the team plays St. John’s on Friday evening, it should not be as easy.
The two teams will be looking to assert themselves as contenders, as both received votes for a top-25 ranking in the Coaches Poll, a list they were ultimately left off of.
“We should come out with a bang to show everyone that we are the UCLA Bruins,” said freshman guard Kennedy Burke.
The Bruins have looked the part of an elite program recently, as the Bruins are in the middle of a seven-game winning streak that stretches back to their championship run in last year’s Women’s National Invitation Tournament.
The winning streak itself is not as important as the sparks of excellence that the team showed while doing it, as UCLA finally came together after a regular season marked with inconsistencies. The team posted a 13-18 record before finally playing to its potential and tearing through the WNIT.
The Bruins will look to prove that they have matured as a unit, as they are layered with six returning sophomores who have had a year to adjust to the college game. They are also supplemented by highly-touted freshmen Burke and forward Ashley Hearn.
The toughest challenge for them Friday night will be to slow down the Red Storm senior backcourt of Danaejah Grant and Aliyyah Handford, both of whom were in the top five in scoring for the Big East last season.
“The primary burden to start will largely be on (senior guard) Nirra Fields and (sophomore guard) Jordin Canada, but (the St. John’s guards) are too good to just go one on one, so we just have to do a good job of pickingthe right angles, being early to help and recover,” said coach Cori Close. “It can never be just one on one, then we’re just not playing team basketball.”
The Bruin offense, which struggled with turnovers for stretches last year, will try to combat the issue with a combination of pace and space.
“We’re much better when we can spread the floor out and go ahead and play up-tempo, so we can try to attack before the defense gets set,” Close said. “If we want to play the way we want to play on offense, then we have to have to make defensive stops.”
After UCLA’s 71-point pummeling of Vanguard, an NAIA team, St. John’s will be the team’s first true test and could define the outlook heading into the season.
“I realize that not all games are going to be like that, like easy come and easy go,” Burke said of the Vanguard game. “The competition from now on is going to be tough, so we have to be prepared for that.”
As a Big East team, St. John’s is known for its physical toughness.
“They say they’re a lot tougher, and sometimes they can be a lot tougher than Pac-12 teams,” said junior guard Kari Korver. “But at the end of the day they’re just another basketball team to me.”
The Bruins’ quest to prove they are not “just another basketball team” begins Friday, as they seek to capture an eighth straight win and continue their ascension towards the Associated Press Top 25.