Monday, March 2, 1998
Players say farewell to Pauley
Seniors final game at home ends with convincing win
By David Arnold
Daily Bruin Contributor
With 25 seconds left in the game, all four seniors left the
floor for UCLA. And that ended an era for Bruin basketball.
It was an era that saw coaches and players change, tournament
hopes that didn’t come true and four young women who sweat it out
on the floor of Pauley Pavilion.
It was Senior Day on Sunday for UCLA’s women’s basketball team
and for Tawana Grimes, Carla Houser, Jamie Oenning and Aisha
Veasley that meant their 96-72 win over Washington would be their
last in Pauley Pavilion.
"I guess it really hasn’t sunk in yet," said Grimes, who
finished her Bruin career with 11 points in 29 minutes as the only
senior starter. "I think because it’s a big game for us."
And a big game it was. After a 80-74 win over Washington State
last Friday, this game concluded a season sweep of the northwest
schools, including those in Oregon. It raised the Bruins record
against ranked teams to 2-4, and after Arizona lost to Stanford on
Saturday, nearly assured them of a second place finish in the
conference, a significant improvement over last year’s sixth place
finish.
The game itself wasn’t the blowout it seemed until the second
half. Though the Huskies shot only 36 percent from the floor in the
first half and Bruin sophomore Maylana Martin scored all 16 of her
points before intermission, early Bruin fouls kept Washington in
the game.
"We sent them to the line way too much in the first half," said
UCLA head coach Kathy Olivier, "but we played some very good
basketball."
Good enough that with 3:46 left in the game, Olivier put all of
the seniors in the game, allowing them all to score before taking
them off, with 25 seconds left, to a standing ovation from a crowd
of 2,292.
"It was a emotional night," said Oenning, "I’m not going to be
playing basketball in this kind of environment again."
"I was telling myself ‘don’t cry, don’t cry,’" said Veasley, who
ended up teary-eyed anyway. "I didn’t expect to go out there and
bawl like I did. It was very emotional for me."
"We’ve got a long way to go," said Houser, remembering the final
two games in Arizona and the team’s tournament possibilities. "The
Bruins aren’t finished yet."
CHARLES KUO/Daily Bruin
UCLA’s Janae Hubbard had career high 26 points and 18 rebounds
against WSU.