CHRIS BACKLEY/Daily Bruin Sophomore forward
Whitney Jones drives by an Arizona player earlier
this season.
By Adam Titcher
Daily Bruin Contributor
The game was about to be a victory for the Bruins. The UCLA
women’s basketball team led at the end of the first half for
only the second time this season. But basketball has two halves for
a reason. And with the help of a scoreboard malfunction, which
delayed play for several minutes, the Ducks rolled over the Bruins
before dominating them, 76-54 in the pit of McArthur Arena on
Saturday.
“UCLA is a scrappy team and we were careless (in the first
half),” Oregon head coach Bev Smith said. “In the
second half we played better defense and jot into a better rhythm
offensively.”
UCLA (5-14, 2-9 Pac-10) has now dropped five games in a row and
are dropping further in the standings.
UCLA sophomore guard Whitney Jones came out early firing shots,
and the Bruins had high hopes of pulling an upset behind their 40
percent shooting performance. Oregon even seemed confused by the
play of the Bruins as they left for the half.
When play resumed, the action remained a stalemate. With all the
players on the court contributing, the Bruins kept it close, and
the two teams swapped leads on four different occasions.
The Bruins pushed themselves hard, but with 13 minutes remaining
in the second half, the Bruins got cold. Shots were not falling for
either team, and UCLA was unable to stage a comeback as Jones
disappeared in the second half.
“I have to get myself more open in the second half, but I
do not know how to do that,” she said.
Getting open shots in the second half would have helped the
Bruins win. Yet, their game ended when the scoreboard stopped
working with 10 minutes left in the game.
The score was 49-45 in favor of Oregon when the buzzer went off.
The malfunctioned noisemaker annoyed fans for a few minutes with a
loud “EHHH,” forcing the supportive crowd to plug their
ears.
The buzzing eventually stopped, but the scoreboards in the arena
had all turned off.
A few minutes later the main scoreboard came on again but read
“UCLA 160, Oregon 49.” It turned off one last time,
before coming on with the normal score.
The Ducks immediately went on a 9-0 run, which snowballed into
an overall 29-8 run to end the game.
“They just got really hot,” UCLA head coach Kathy
Olivier said. “Our defense was good, but we kept missing
while they kept making shots.”
Oregon shot 57 percent from the field, including an impressive
7-of-11 from three point range.
“Things happen and I do not think the malfunction hurt us,
but we just could not stop their run,” UCLA junior guard
Natalie Nakase said.
“We just did not play well in the last ten
minutes.”
And those last 10 minutes were the most important minutes of the
game.