For any hope of a postseason run, the women’s basketball team most likely needs to win the Pac-10 Tournament, regardless of the outcome of tonight’s game at Stanford and Saturday’s at Cal.
The Bruins (13-15, 7-9 Pac-10) have lost three in a row but will look to get back at the No. 8 Cardinal tonight at Maples Pavilion. Last time the two teams faced each other, the Bruins dropped a close game 68-59.
“They do have the NCAA Tournament to look forward to, but I know how they operate,” UCLA coach Kathy Olivier said. “I know that their mind-set will be “˜let’s continue to play well so we can get a good seed.’ They never want us to beat them.”
A certain rivalry has developed over the past few years as UCLA and Stanford have battled both in close games and for recruits.
“It’s a very competitive rivalry,” Olivier said. “In fact it’s more of a rivalry than ‘SC because of the academic side. (For) a lot of our players it was either us or Stanford.”
In their first matchup the Bruins could not contain forward Brooke Smith, who put up 13 points in only 24 minutes.
“They have a very good inside game,” Olivier said. “Brooke the Hook does a great job. She killed us in the past.”
The return of Stanford guard Candice Wiggins, who is one of the top players in both the Pac-10 and the country, will pose more problems for UCLA. When the Cardinal came to Pauley in December, she had been injured and did not play.
“They have a very strong perimeter with Candice Wiggins,” Olivier said. “Wiggins and (UCLA guard) Noelle Quinn are probably up for player of the year, so there’s a battle going on there.”
The Bruins will try to take a fast-paced defensive game into Palo Alto in hopes of pushing the pace of the game into a shootout.
“When we play up-tempo defensively, we’re much better offensively and we tend to play better team basketball,” Olivier said. “Hopefully our focus will be on the defensive end.”
After tonight’s game, the road trip will not get much easier. The Bruins will travel to Cal’s Haas Pavilion to take on the Bears, who just fell out of the top 25 this week.
In their first matchup in December, the Bruins tallied their only overtime win of the season with a 77-68 victory.
“They have a good inside game and their perimeters are playing better,” Olivier said. “We just have to know that we can beat them and that we’re capable and almost get our mojo back. Our confidence is a little bit shattered right now, but as far as the team goes, they’re working very hard in practice.”
The Bruins are coming off a crushing loss to Arizona last Thursday and a tough heartbreaker against Arizona State on Sunday. They will need to get some momentum going as they head into the Pac-10 Tournament next weekend if they want to secure an automatic bid.
“This is a bunch of young women that want to compete,” Olivier said. “They’re disappointed and they should be.
“For the most part, they’ve kept their chins up. … We had two bad losses, but for the most part we’re in every game.”