With four minutes left in Sunday’s women’s basketball game, UCLA was tied 58-58 with No. 2 South Carolina.
The final four minutes did not go the way the Bruins (2-1) wanted, as the Gamecocks (4-0) escaped with a 68-65 victory, but the previous 36 minutes showed just how far they have come.
Now, as UCLA prepares to face the Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters (2-1) Friday at the Junkanoo Jam tournament in the Bahamas, sophomore guard Jordin Canada said the team’s confidence is continuing to grow.
“(We have) already learned that we’re already a way better team than last year,” Canada said. “This shows how hard we worked during the summer and how much more focused we are as a team and it really showed out there on the court.”
That hard work was evident as Bruins forced the Gamecocks into 21 turnovers. The staunch UCLA defense will provide the Techster offense with its toughest test yet.
Louisiana Tech’s top scorers on the team, redshirt junior guard Brooke Pumroy and senior guard/forward Brandi Wingate, have only averaged 15.7 and 9.7 points per game, respectively. In comparison, UCLA’s top scorers, Canada and senior guard Nirra Fields, have averaged 21.5 and 18.5 points a game.
The matchup will provide the Bruins an opportunity to continue strengthening their game early in the season.
“We’ve come a long way since last year, and I can already see the improvements in our intensity (and) in our attention to detail,” said Fields. “There’s still little things that we can fix up. I think a lot of it is quick fixes like making shots on the three-point line, little stuff like that. If we put those together, we’ll be a dominant team.”
Those little things could be crucial later on in this weekend’s tourney. If UCLA can beat Louisiana Tech on Friday, the Bruins will likely face the No. 3 Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the second round of the tourney.
That matchup might have seemed daunting last year, but UCLA has already proven it can hang with a top-five team.
Compiled by Logan Patton, Bruin Sports contributor.