After receiving tough news off the court earlier in the day, the
UCLA women’s basketball team was able to take care of
business on the court. Despite officially learning that freshman
guard Ashlee Trebilcock was transferring just four games into her
career, the Bruins clobbered the UC Irvine Anteaters, 92-54, in
what was a complete team effort on both ends of the court. As a
team, the Bruins (3-2) were able to set the tone of the game right
from the very beginning, as the Anteaters (0-5) were always a step
behind. Before two minutes had eclipsed in the first half, the home
team had opened up a 9-0 lead and the Bruins opened up the second
half on a 7-0 run as well. “We have all five starters
returning and they take a lot of pride in how we’re gonna
start the game,” UCLA coach Kathy Olivier said. “I
thought we did a pretty good job of sustaining the effort and that
was nice.” Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the win was
the Bruins’ team rebounding. UCLA’s 65 rebounds more
than doubled UCI’s total of 32; 21 of the 65 rebounds were
offensive rebounds. After losing the rebound battle 52-27 in a loss
to Brigham Young University last week, the Bruins have outrebounded
all three of their opponents since then in victorious efforts.
“It’s good to see that our work in practice and our
rebounding drills are finally paying off,” sophomore forward
Lindsey Pluimer said. From an individual perspective, UCLA got
everything it could ask for from the vaunted “Triple
Threat.” Senior guard Lisa Willis had 20 points and 8
rebounds in 21 minutes, senior guard Nikki Blue had 13 points and 5
rebounds in 20 minutes, and junior guard Noelle Quinn contributed
24 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists in the winning cause. For the
first time this season, the contributions from the supporting cast
overshadowed any individual performance. Pluimer had 9 points and
11 rebounds and Ibekwe had 11 rebounds in just 14 minutes of
action. What made the game that much more fun for Olivier was
watching eight of her players log double-digit minutes of play.
“I would love to be able to do that every game,”
Olivier said. “They are all hard workers. The ideal situation
is that I get to play all of them all of the time, but that’s
not going to happen.” Quinn was the only Bruin to play more
than 30 minutes, staying in the game with the second-team to run
the offense as the team’s point guard. “On the first
day of practice, I was telling people, “˜OK, you need to know
this spot,'” Olivier said. “When I got to Noelle,
I said, “˜Noelle, you need to know the 1, 2, 3, 4 and
5.’ I think it’s even more evident losing a player that
gave us depth in the backcourt.”
DRIBBLERS: When Ibekwe scored and was fouled on
an aggressive move to the basket with three minutes to go in the
game, Olivier jumped up in the air and pumped her fist excitedly.
… It was Willis’ 22nd consecutive game with a double-digit
scoring output.