Thursday, November 13, 1997
Confident Bruins look forward to real thing
W. BASKETBALL:
Easy win over foreign team helps UCLA prepare for seasonBy David
Arnold
Daily Bruin Contributor
For UCLA’s women’s basketball team, this was just another week
of pummeling the competition  another overseas team trying to
excel at the American game  and failing in the attempt.
Last week it was the Slovakians, and last night it was the
Australian Kilsyth Cobras that served as practice for the Bruins
while bricking their way toward a 75-63 point loss.
For the Bruins it was a final opportunity to work out the kinks
before starting the regular season against Saint Mary’s College
next Friday. For the visiting Cobras it was an opportunity to give
up 21 points to a backup player and be negative 26 in turnover
ratio.
Both teams took their opportunities: the Bruins got another
chance for the team to get used to the unpredictable, yet amazing,
passing of star point guard Erica Gomez; and the Cobras succeeded
in making even the turnover-happy Americans look in control.
"We looked very confident out there," said forward Marie
Philman, who filled in for 1996 Pac-10 Freshman of the Year Maylana
Martin by racking up 21 points and six rebounds.
"She really picked it up," said Gomez, agreeing with UCLA head
coach Kathy Oliver who said that Philman had her first "career
game" in her first career start. Oliver also added that they’re "a
better team when Gomez has the ball" and that Philman scored so
much "because she was a favorite target of Gomez."
Other notable performances include seniors Tawana Grimes’ five
steals, Aisha Veasley’s seven steals and Carla Houser’s 10
rebounds.
In terms of being a predictor for the team’s performance from
here on out, one has to wonder which statistics are more
characteristic of the team.
Is it the 75 points, the 45 team rebounds, the 67 percent free
throw average, and the undefeated record? Or is it the back-to-back
games giving up 20 plus to a single player (last night to Cobra
Chelsea Laing), having only two players shoot over 50 percent from
the field, or the 12 percent three-point shooting?
As Philman said, "We looked very confident." That may be the
most important thing of all for the Bruins as the real games have
yet to be played.