It did not take long for the UCLA women’s basketball team to assert its authority over Oregon State. With the Bruins entering the game as heavy favorites over the last-place Beavers, coach Nikki Caldwell was looking for her team to execute a solid game plan in order to book a place in the semifinal round of the Pac-10 Tournament.
Mission accomplished.
The Bruins roared out of the gates, ripping off a 19-6 run to open the game and never looking back in the 60-44 drubbing of the Beavers. With the win, UCLA advances to play the home-court Trojans on Saturday in Galen Center for a place in the tournament final. The No. 2-seeded Bruins never faced a significant challenge from the overmatched Beavers, who appeared unable to handle UCLA defensive trapping and prowess in the paint.
Oregon State had no answer for Jasmine Dixon, who led UCLA with 14 points. But it was the effort of an entire team that turned Friday night’s game from respectable to rout in a very short span.
“I am basically doing whatever coach needs me to do,” Dixon said. “If she needs me to get in there and bang with the best player in the country, that’s what I’m going to do to the best of my ability.”
Caldwell said she knows that Dixon makes a big difference for her team.
“Dixon obviously is putting up the numbers,” Caldwell said. “She’s a very strong basketball player. She doesn’t back down from anybody that steps in front of her.”
Caldwell dialed up the defensive pressure early, hoping to force the Beavers into turnovers and easy baskets for her squad. The strategy paid off, but Caldwell said her team could have done better.
“I was disappointed because we didn’t play together as a unit,” Caldwell said. “I thought we did a good job of closing our traps. In the second half, we became complacent. We missed a lot of defensive assignments. We generate our offense through our defense. That’s something that this team has to understand.”
If there was one area of concern that showed itself on Friday, it was a stagnant offense. Despite some easy buckets, the Bruins struggled to execute in their half-court sets. The second half was an especially sloppy affair. UCLA scored just nine points in the first 10 minutes of the second half. Luckily, UCLA was so far ahead that the Beavers were unable to capitalize.
“We’ll take this and hopefully they will learn from this,” Caldwell said. “We got away from the little things, and we fell short in that area.”
The win was the Bruins’ second in as many years against Oregon State in the Pac-10 Tournament. UCLA advanced to the semifinals in 2009 before falling to Stanford, but the team hopes for a better result this time around against the rival Trojans.
“We have to come out tomorrow and play harder, play together,” senior Erica Tukiainen said. “As a team, coach talks to us about wherever we play, its someone we have to compete with. We have a history and tradition with USC, but we have to play Bruin basketball and focus on what we do the best and what we can control.”
UCLA and USC faced each other twice during the regular season, with the home team winning each time. In their last meeting, the Bruins stormed their way to an easy 74-56 victory. But with a place in the tournament final on the line, the stakes are a little higher this time around.
In order to book a place in Sunday’s game, though, the Bruins will have to exercise some considerable demons. Since the arena opened in 2006, UCLA has yet to defeat USC at the Galen Center.
“It’s going to be a competitive game for sure,” Caldwell said. “We understand that ‘SC is a team that is very good at home, and that’s something we’ve got to adjust to. At this time of year, it’s about who’s going to execute their game plan. It’s about us.”
UCLA faces USC at approximately 5 p.m. California takes on top-seeded Stanford in the first semifinal at 2:30 p.m.