CHRIS BACKLEY/Daily Bruin Guard Jalina
Bradley shows her intensity in last Friday’s game
against Stanford. The Bruins lost by 8 points and will face
Stanford in March. Stanford 60 UCLA 52
Cal 58 UCLA 57
By Scott Schultz
Daily Bruin Contributor
It takes 40 minutes to win a basketball game. Thus was the
lesson for the Bruins on Sunday, when they gave up a layup to Cal
junior center Ami Forney on an inbounds play with 3.5 seconds
remaining in the game, allowing the Golden Bears (8-11, 4-5 Pac-10)
to sneak out of Pauley Pavilion with a 58-57 victory.
The teams had been swapping leads all afternoon. UCLA (3-17,
2-7) was leading for much of the first half, but the Bruins closed
the half on the wrong end of a 14-2 run, giving Cal a 32-21 lead
going into the break.
The Bears were up by as much as 15 points in the second half,
but the Bruins, who have made a habit of second half comebacks,
came back from the dead once again.
Behind Michelle Greco, who had 14 of her team-high 18 points in
the second half, the Bruins had a 10-minute 24-4 run, which put
them in command 47-42 with 5:50 left in the game. But the Bears
scored five straight points to tie the game at 47 with 4:40 on the
clock.
“I think we did a good job settling down in the second
half,” said UCLA head coach Kathy Olivier. “We made a
good run, but sometimes after you fall behind early it’s
hard, because you expend all your energy catching up and it can
leave you exhausted after that rush.”
There were six lead changes in the gripping final two minutes of
the game.
With 35 seconds left in the game, and Cal up 56-54, Greco drove
to the basket and was fouled. She sunk both her free throws to tie
the game at 56. As Cal was bringing the ball upcourt for one final
shot, sophomore point guard Natalie Nakase, who tied a career-best
six steals, picked the pocket of the Bears’ point guard, and
was fouled and sent to the line with 20 seconds remaining in the
game.
 NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin Freshman forward
Whitney Jones dribbles the ball in Friday’s loss
to the Stanford Cardinal.
“She was looking at the clock and I went for it,”
Nakase said. “But I should have made both free
throws.”
Nakase sunk one of the two free throws to give the Bruins a
57-56 lead. The Bruins’ high-pressure defense, which forced
28 Cal turnovers, was in overdrive for the final defensive stand of
the game, forcing the ball out of bounds with five seconds
remaining.
The Bruins’ inbounds defense was there, but Forney, the
Golden Bears’ center, was able to cut into the open post
where she received the inbound pass and made the layup, giving the
Bears the lead for good.
“We knew we had a lot of time left so we could get a good
shot,”Forney said. “I was well covered, but I caught
the pass, so I said a prayer and it went in.”
The Bruins had 3.5 seconds to go end-to-end for a last attempt
to win the game, and they got a good look at the hoop, but Kristee
Porter’s 13-foot jumper bounced off the rim as time
expired.
Cal was led by senior guard Kenya Corley with a career-best 25
points and senior forward Brook Coulter, who was 5 of 5 from
three-point range.
The close defeat was extra bitter for the Bruins as it came on
the heels of Friday night’s 60-52 loss to Stanford (11-7,
5-3.)
Against Stanford, UCLA got off to the worst possible start as
they gave up the first 14 points of the ballgame.
The Cardinal, who were led by freshman sensation guard Nicole
Powell with 18 points and 15 rebounds and a rotation of perimeter
players who shot a scorching 50 percent from beyond the arc, built
up a 16-point lead in the second half.
The Bruins, led by Kristee Porter’s team-high 13 points
and nine rebounds, were able to cut the Cardinal lead to 45-44 with
5:46 remaining in the game, but that was as close as they got.
Stanford went on a 15-4 run to put the game out of reach.
UCLA’s next game is at USC on Saturday at 2 pm.