EDWARD LIN/Daily Bruin Junior Michelle
Greco dribbles past her opponent in the Bruins’ game
versus USC earlier this season. The Bruins will face the Oregon
Ducks on Saturday. OSU 71 UCLA 58 WOMEN’S
BASKETBALL vs. Saturday 1 p.m. Eugene, OR TV: Fox Sports
Net Radio: 850 AM
By Scott Schultz
Daily Bruin Contributor
The UCLA women’s basketball team was hoping to carry its
momentum from last week’s stunning upset of Arizona at Pauley
Pavilion to the Gill Coliseum against the Oregon State Beavers
(11-5, 3-3), but the Bruins were doomed from the start. The Bruins
let the Beavers get a 13-0 run at the start of a game that they
eventually lost, 71-58.
The tall timber front line of the Beaver defense fronted the
smaller UCLA guards and held the Bruins scoreless for the first
seven and a half minutes of play. The Bruins missed their first 13
shots of the game.
The Bruins (3-14, 2-4 Pac-10) were forced to rely on perimeter
shooting in the first half, as the Beavers completely dammed up the
post. Unfortunately for UCLA, the jumpers weren’t falling
either; they shot a dismal 21.2 percent from the field in the first
half. They trailed the Beavers at the intermission 40-19.
“We came out soft and we got into foul trouble in the post
early,” said UCLA point guard Natalie Nakase.
Sophomore forward Kristee Porter, the leading rebounder for the
Bruins at 8.6 rebounds per game, got into foul trouble in the first
half, gathering three fouls in just nine minutes. That denied any
front-court presence for the Bruins, who were out-rebounded by the
Beavers 27-18 in the first half.
“They had a couple of inches on us, but I think we
underestimated their quickness,” Porter said. “We would
post them and they would get a step on us, and we’d foul
them.”
The Beavers, behind All-Pac-10 junior guard Felicia
Ragland’s 23 points on 10-of-15 shooting, led by as much as
25 points in the second half
“Oregon State did a great job against our defense,”
said UCLA head coach Kathy Olivier. “They lined up a
two-guard front which denied us the ability to trap.”
The Bruins had more of an inside presence after intermission.
Porter played the entire second half without picking up another
foul, enabling junior guard Michelle Greco, who went one of 10 from
the field in the first half, to find her shooting touch.
Behind the second-half resurgence of Greco, who scored 22 of her
25 points in the second half, the Bruins were able to reduce the
Beaver lead to only nine points with 1:37 remaining in the game,
but that was as close as they got.
“It shows a lot of character that they came back in the
second half,” Olivier said. “We fell behind early, and
we sent them to the line 27 times. When you do that on the road it
adds up to a big L.”
The Bruins have yet to win a road-game this year, and their job
won’t get any easier when they travel to Eugene on Saturday
to challenge the Oregon Ducks, who are ranked 20th in both college
basketball polls.
“We’re feeling comfortable at home now, but
we’re going to have to win some games on the road if we
expect to move up in the Pac-10,” Nakase said.
The Ducks are going to play with extra determination since they
lost Thursday night to USC, 55-53.
“Oregon is another team that plays deliberate basketball
and doesn’t make mistakes,”Oliver said.
The Ducks have been playing without leading scorer Angelina
Wolvert, who sprained her medial collateral ligament and is
doubtful this week.
The Ducks swept both games against the Bruins last season, and
have been victorious in their last three matchups. The game will be
televised live on Fox Sports Net at 1 p.m.