Prior to Thursday night’s game against Washington State, UCLA women’s basketball coach Nikki Caldwell said that she was still waiting for her team to put together a full 40 minutes of intense, consistent play.
Her wait is over.
“From the intensity standpoint, and playing hard, and playing together as a team, this was probably our best outing,” Caldwell said. “From the turnover standpoint, we need to be better in that regard. But if you grade out effort, I would definitely give us an “˜A.'”
The Bruins (13-4, 4-2 Pac-10) throttled the Cougars (8-9, 1-5 Pac-10), 83-48, in a game that they executed exactly according to the defensive values that their first-year coach preaches. UCLA had its full-court press clicking and their transition game flowing from tip-off, all the way until freshman guard Rebekah Gardner converted a layup off a back-door pass with less than a minute to go.
UCLA scored repeatedly off turnovers they had created with pressure defense at the perimeter. The Bruins forced WSU to turn the ball over 29 times, and they scored 36 points off those mishaps, mostly in transition.
One particularly impressive sequence came with less than five minutes remaining. Junior guard Erica Tukiainen got a piece of the ball on the defensive end and fed an outlet pass to junior guard Allison Taka, who was streaking down the left side of the court.
Taka dropped the ball to senior guard Tierra Henderson, who was trailing down the middle of the floor, and just prior to charging into a Cougar defender, Henderson dropped a bounce pass to sophomore guard Doreena Campbell, waiting to lay it up for the easy bucket.
It was the defensive intensity that generated turnovers and led to easy points like Campbell’s two that defined the Bruins’ night.
“Everyone was going all-out and working hard,” said Tukiainen, who finished with 11 points. “We did a great job communicating and trusting each other. Not only was it fun to play, but it just felt really easy. We weren’t always at the right place at the right time, but because of the second effort, we were able to rotate and do things correctly.”
Next up for the Bruins is Washington at 2 p.m. at home on Saturday. The Huskies lost to USC Thursday night to fall to 5-10 overall and 1-5 in Pac-10 play.