With the losses and the urgency mounting, the UCLA women’s
basketball team’s NCAA Tournament hopes are slowly slipping
away.
Mired in a slump that has seen the team fall out of contention
in the Pac-10 race, the Bruins cannot afford to lose tonight when
they host No. 24 Arizona or their postseason chances will be in
serious jeopardy.
“Honestly, I’ve felt the pressure all season,”
said head coach Kathy Olivier regarding the maintenance of a
winning record.
UCLA (12-9, 7-5 Pac-10) currently checks in at fourth in the
conference behind Stanford, Washington and Arizona.
The Wildcats (16-6, 9-4 Pac-10) will certainly pose a challenge
for the Bruins, who lost the last meeting between the two schools a
month ago in Tuscon, 80-61. That loss ended UCLA’s six-game
winning streak, and set in motion the squad’s current skid.
Since falling to the Wildcats, the Bruins have lost four more times
with their only victory coming against lowly Washington State.
“Right now we have to get out of that slump,” said
senior guard Michelle Greco. “We have to start expecting to
win.”
Tonight, though, the Bruins will have to expect tough play from
the entire Arizona squad. Wildcat center Shawntinice Polk, the most
likely candidate to win the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year Award, is
averaging 17.6 points and 9.8 rebounds a game in conference play
and will be a problem for the Bruins’ smaller lineup.
Although UCLA prepared for Polk in their last meeting and held her
to only 12 points, the team failed to contain sophomore guard
Dee-Dee Wheeler, who averages just a half point less than Polk and
tallied 27 points against the Bruins. Not surprisingly, one of many
strengths for Arizona lies in its balanced starting lineup ““
four of the five Wildcats average double digits in scoring.
“We are definitely going to have to play smart, smart
defense,” Olivier said.
The Bruin offense, however, will hardly have an easy night
against the Wildcats. Greco, the Pac-10’s scoring leader,
netted 28 points against the Trojans, and almost two weeks ago,
freshman phenom Nikki Blue broke a school record when she scored 35
points against Washington. Arizona had some success against the duo
in their last meeting, holding Greco and Blue to only 14 and 19
points, respectively.
The key to Bruin success tonight will no doubt lie in the
abilities of Greco and Blue to provide matchup problems for the
Arizona defenders. Equally crucial, however, are the other three
Bruins on the court.
“We need more from our role players,” said Olivier.
“We have to figure out a way to get a few more rebounds, a
few more points, and make sure we’re confident.”
Now is the time when performances like last weekend’s
18-point contribution from freshman Lisa Willis are needed to
solidify the Bruin offense. If more UCLA players step up, the end
of the season could start looking more like the beginning.
“If anything, we just need our swagger back,”
Olivier said.