Women’s basketball loses first-half steam in defeats to Stanford, Cal

Harry Potter Night cast a spell on Pauley Pavilion this weekend. There was magic, but it was brewing in the visitors’ locker room.

On Friday, UCLA (8-11, 4-4 Pac-12) was outgunned 79-70 against No. 11 Stanford (15-5, 7-1), and Cal (15-5, 6-2) handed the Bruins a 72-57 defeat on Sunday.

“(Stanford and Cal) couldn’t be more different,” said coach Cori Close. “What they do is different, how they shoot the ball is different. It’s the biggest contrast of styles.”

Although Stanford and Cal demand different approaches from their opponents on both offense and defense, both games followed the same trends: an 8-0 UCLA run after tip-off, a dominant first-half performance by the Bruins, a comfortable lead and then a flop in momentum favoring the visitors after halftime.

“We play aggressive when we want to play aggressive, and I think that is one of our biggest strengths,” said freshman guard Jordin Canada after the Stanford game. “When we play together and we’re focused and mentally locked in, we can go on runs, and we can beat any team if we play like that consistently.”

This weekend, consistency was the Bruins’ main stumbling block.

Against Stanford, the Bruins led the entire first half, even pulling ahead to a 13-point lead. Yet as halftime approached, UCLA’s lead dwindled to just three points.

Statistically, the Bruins were doing everything right in the first half. They kept up with Stanford off the boards, were more accurate than the Cardinal in field goal and 3-point percentage and led in assists, blocks and steals. Junior guard Nirra Fields was dominating from beyond the curve, sinking four of six 3-point attempts in the first 20 minutes.

“We were pushing the ball. We had great defense, which led to my easy shots, especially in transition,” Fields said. “Ultimately, our defense led to our offense.”

The second half was a completely different story.

It was as if the energy the Bruins had spent in the first half was transferred to the Cardinal locker room. Stanford, which has defended the conference title for the past 14 years, came back from the break in full force, tying the game and then surging to a 15-point lead.

Stanford was more efficient in all areas in the second half and dominated off the boards.

The game came within six points in the final minutes, and the Bruins had no choice but to continually foul to stop the clock and create more possessions. Despite the Bruins’ last-second efforts, the Cardinal came out with the win and left their “second-period power” in the locker room of Pauley Pavilion for the Cal Bears.

On Sunday, the Bruins again led the Bears comfortably the entire first half until the final minutes. Heading into the locker room, the Bears were ahead by one point.

Both teams struggled to sink shots in the first half. UCLA shot 36 percent in field goals and Cal shot 32.3 percent.

Rebounding was the Bruins’ strength in the beginning of the game. In the first three minutes, redshirt junior forward Kacy Swain grabbed six rebounds. Swain finished the night with no points but contributed 10 rebounds, tying her season high.

“(Kacy) didn’t have any points, but she still maintained her rebounding intensity. To me, that’s how you play through adversity, how you show fight,” Close said. “Even though she wasn’t rewarded in her scoring, that didn’t take away from something that was under her control that her team needed from her. That’s the point of growth.”

Despite growth in the first half, magic happened in the visitors’ locker room between periods.

The early aggressiveness of the Bruins wasn’t enough to stop the Bears from reversing the statistics and leaping to a comfortable lead with a 15-0 run early in the second half.

Whereas the Bruins were able to capitalize off of Stanford turnovers on Friday, turnovers became UCLA’s ultimate demise on Sunday. The Bears scored 35 points off of 19 UCLA turnovers, and UCLA was unable to turn 18 Cal turnovers into anything more than a mere eight points.

The Bruins did, however, mirror the Bears in rebounds. Both teams finished the game with 38.

The Bruins three-game win streak has now transmogrified into a two-game losing streak. Close said emphasis on consistency will be crucial before the Bruins face Oregon and No. 9 Oregon State next weekend.

“We got out-toughed and out-focused. We have to get out of our comfort zones and take responsibility, and we need to show a lot more fight,” Close said. “My challenge as a coach is to count the victories of growth, but at the same time make it really uncomfortable for them in the areas that we didn’t take care of.”