After Sebnem Kimyaciogalu’s three-point attempt lodged
itself between the rim and the backboard late in Saturday’s
game, UCLA’s Nikki Blue leaped high in the air to pry the
ball loose.
Much like her team’s performance against Stanford, she
fell just short.
Nicole Powell tallied 24 points, and the No. 9Â Cardinal
thwarted a spirited UCLA comeback, clinching their second
consecutive Pac-10 title with a 79-61 victory in Palo Alto.
“We came out flat, and Stanford was on fire,” senior
guard Michelle Greco said. “They couldn’t miss. It was
tough to get ourselves out of that hole.”
The loss drops the Bruins (15-10, 10-6 Pac-10) into fourth place
in the conference, and further jeopardizes their postseason hopes.
With two games remaining in the regular season, UCLA needs a strong
finish in order to secure an NCAA bid.
“We have to beat the Oregon schools at home and do a good
job in the Pac-10 tournament,” head coach Kathy Olivier said.
“We probably have to win our first-round game and maybe even
our second.”
While the Bruins are certainly capable of such a stretch,
defeating the Cardinal (22-3, 14-2 Pac-10) would have been a huge
boost.
But, thanks to some timely offense from Powell, a UCLA victory
was not in the cards.
With the Bruins down six and surging midway through the second
half, Stanford’s Chelsea Trotter grabbed T’Nae
Thiel’s missed free throw attempt and dished it to Powell,
who converted a layup and was fouled. The three-point play extended
the Cardinal advantage to 63-53, and ignited a decisive 18-6 run
that put the game out of reach.
“That play was a back-breaker,” Greco said.
“But even after that we had some opportunities. We missed
some key shots and sent them to the free throw line too many
times.”
The Bruins trailed by as many as 20 points in the first half and
17 at the break, but cut the deficit to single digits with a 12-4
run coming out of halftime. UCLA’s defense harassed the
Cardinal into a string of ill-advised shots, creating some
opportunities for easy buckets at the other end.
Blue had 17 of her team-high 23 points in the second half, and
flourished as the game’s tempo quickened.
While Olivier was pleased with her squad’s effort, she did
not see much of a silver lining in the loss.
“We picked up our defense, and that’s when we made
our run, but I don’t think that’s good enough for this
team,” she said. “We’ve beaten everybody in the
Pac-10 except Stanford, and we feel like we have a shot against
them too.”
The Bruins may get the chance to prove Olivier right, as the two
squads could collide again in two weeks at the Pac-10 tournament in
San Jose. A victory in that game would likely be enough to secure a
bid to the Big Dance for UCLA.
“We feel the Pac-10 deserves to get four teams into the
NCAA tournament, and we feel we are one of those teams,”
Olivier said. “If we get another shot at Stanford, we’d
love to face them again.”