Monday, January 13, 1997
W. HOOPS:
Reserve play is key against Cal; Stanford retains winning
recordBy A. CinQue Carter
Daily Bruin Contributor
On Sunday afternoon, the Bruins hosted the Golden Bears of
California (5-8, 1-3) in the Wooden Center. With six reserves
playing double digit minutes, UCLA pulled out a 74-65 victory in
front of a packed gymnasium.
Martin led the way with 30 points and 10 rebounds, while Hubbard
recorded 16 and eight in 14 minutes. Unexpectedly, Jamie Oenning
and Laura Tomich saw their first significant minutes of the season.
Oenning had five points in 14 minutes, with Tomich getting four
points and two assists in 17 minutes.
With all the key performances Sunday tonight, Olivier still
found an area that needs improvement. The Bruins were less than
desirable from the line, shooting 16 of 29.
"Free throws, free throws," Olivier said. "We’ve got to make our
free throws if we’re going to win games, especially on the
road."
* * *
On Friday night, Stanford marched into Pauley Pavilion healthy
and undefeated in conference play and hobbled out beat up and
undefeated in conference play.
During a 74-62 defeat of UCLA (8-5, 2-2) in front of a
season-high 3,343, the Cardinal (16-1, 4-0) held off the Bruins’
late run with two starters going down with injuries.
Jamila Wideman went down with an ankle injury with 6:16
remaining in the first half and Vanessa Nygaard left the game
following a knee injury with 6:10 remaining in the game.
Following a first half in which UCLA saw head coach Tara
VanDerveer and her Cardinal take a 46-29 lead, the Bruins found
themselves on the short end of a 9-6 run and down 55-35.
"They’re like machines," head coach Kathy Olivier said. "They
always know where each other are on the court."
Janae Hubbard was inserted into the starting lineup to counter
Stanford’s size down low, but the Cardinal chose not to go inside
and exploited the Bruins in the full court game, running away in
the early going with easy transition buckets.
Olivier’s troops couldn’t seem to get back on defense. Time
after time, Stanford would follow a defensive rebound with an easy
basket at the other end.
Conversely, when UCLA did get it inside they would get easy
shots but couldn’t seem to finish. Hubbard, who finished with nine
rebounds got six of those offensively following her shots. She
finished 2 of 9 from the field.
"Janae, today, just didn’t have it," Olivier said. "We’re young,
and early in the game we played like freshmen."
Olivier was making reference to her mostly freshman team, which
had only one upperclassman in this game. Takiyah Jackson, one of
those freshmen, seemed to have her conference coming-out party with
18 points and 10 rebounds on five of eight shooting from the floor
and eight of eight shooting from the line.
Stanford’s defenders seemed to have a lock on UCLA’s leading
scorer, Maylana Martin, who finished 4 of 13 from the field with
nine points and five rebounds. Freshman counterpart Carly Funicello
shot 67 percent managing only two boards.
With Stanford’s Olympia Scott and Heather Owen in early foul
trouble, the Cardinal countered UCLA’s effort with a superb showing
from Kate Starbird who finished with 27 points, three assists, two
blocks and one steal. The Bruins knew Starbird was the Cardinal’s
main weapon, but did not back down from her.
"You can’t be scared because they would have had that edge on
us," Martin said. "We’ll play them better next time."
JUSTIN WARREN/Daily Bruin
Takiyah Jackson played well against Stanford.