BRIDGET O’BRIEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Natalie
Jarrett goes up for a shot in a game against Utah earlier
this season. BYU 68 UCLA 53
By Scott Schultz
Daily Bruin Contributor
The UCLA women’s hoopsters traveled to Provo, Utah in
search of their first victory of the season Sunday. And the search
continues, as the BYU Cougars (1-1) defeated the Bruins (0-4) 68-53
Sunday in a non-conference game at the Marriott Center.
The Bruins, who lost four of last year’s starters to
graduation and are anticipating the December return of two of this
year’s projected starters, senior guard LaCresha Flannigan
and sophomore guard Nicole Kaczmarski, have gotten off to the
slowest start in the program’s history. The team’s
losing streak can be attributed to the combination of an
inexperienced roster and a grueling non-conference schedule.
“We need to learn how to win,” said UCLA head coach
Kathy Olivier, in a post-game interview on KXTA radio. “We
don’t have a lot of experience on the floor, and that’s
going to hurt you. Any time you don’t have experience on the
floor, you’re going to have inconsistency, and that’s
what we’re dealing with right now.”
The Bruins gave a performance that had as many peaks and valleys
as the Rocky Mountain range which surrounds the arena.
After spotting the Cougars a 7-0 advantage, UCLA fought back to
gain the lead behind junior guard Michelle Greco, who returned from
an ankle injury to score a game-high 24 points and tie her career
best with eight rebounds.
After a Greco 3-pointer gave the Bruins a 19-15 lead midway
through the first half, UCLA went into a funk as the Cougars went
on a 15-1 run, putting them ahead 30-21.
The Bruins were able to claw into the BYU lead, entering
halftime trailing by only five points, but faltered in the second
half, allowing the Cougars a 12-3 run, thus putting the game out of
reach. The Cougars led the rest of the game, leading by as much as
19 points.
“We started out well in the first half. We pressured the
ball and we were making good decisions,” said Greco.
“In the second half we weren’t pressuring the ball and
we were making silly mistakes and a lot of unforced
errors.”
The Bruins, who were plagued by 21 turnovers, had difficulty
scoring baskets against the Cougar defense, with the team
connecting on only 25 percent of their second-half field goal
attempts. With BYU keyed in on Greco, the Bruins could not find an
effective second scoring option.
“You can’t win a game if you can’t get points
on the board,” Olivier said. “We did some good things
at times, but we’re still trying to find a way to get
consistent.”
The Bruins played a good game defensively, forcing 23 Cougar
turnovers and effectively taking BYU’s All-Mountain West
Conference shooting guard Erin Thorn, who scored 36 points in their
season opener at Arizona, out of the game by holding her to only
eight points.
The Bruins’ inexperienced front-line players, however,
could not counter the dominant front court performances of Cougars
Heather Cheesman and Caroline Beus, who combined for 29 points with
12 of 16 field goal attempts, and 15 rebounds ““ seven of
which were offensive boards.
Although the Bruins were understandably frustrated by their
difficult start this season, the players remain positive that they
will be able to turn the season around.
“I definitely feel we could have won this game, but we
lost the intensity that we had in the first half,” Greco
said. “I think we’ll bounce back against San Diego on
Tuesday.”
Freshman guard Gennifer Arranaga, who scored six points, was
disappointed with the tough defeat but is looking forward to better
times.
“We didn’t play up to our potential, but we will
definitely get better in time,” she said.
Redshirt sophomore guard Natalie Nakase, who had a career-high
six assists for the Bruins is looking forward to putting the losing
streak behind them and moving on.
“We’re really hungry for that first victory,”
said Nakase.
Olivier is confident that the Bruins will work their way out of
their current slump as they gain additional experience.
“We’re going to keep our heads up and keep working
toward getting more consistent,” said Olivier,
“We’re going to have to learn to work through
it.”
The Bruins will get another chance to gain their first victory
at 7 p.m. next Tuesday at Pauley Pavilion, when they face the
Toreros of the University of San Diego.
USD is another of the seven scheduled non-conference games
against teams who earned NCAA tournament bids last season.