W. hoops jumpstarts second half of conference play at home

W. hoops jumpstarts second half of conference play at home

By Emmanuelle Ejercito

Daily Bruin Staff

After three straight losses on the road, the UCLA women’s
basketball team returns home to begin the second half of conference
play.

Coming to Westwood will be a relief for the Bruins, who have won
three of four home games, but have compiled a 1-4 record on the
road.

The Bruins, who are in a four-way tie for fifth place in the
Pacific 10, will tip-off tonight at 7 p.m. against California at
the Wooden Center. Then, on Sunday afternoon, No. 4 Stanford will
pay a visit to Pauley Pavilion.

"The big game is (tonight) … we are working to get our
confidence back," UCLA head coach Kathy Olivier said. "We are on a
three- game losing streak – this is a big game to get us on the
right track."

The last time these two teams met, the Bruins, led by freshman
Erica Gomez who scored a career- high 24 points, mauled the Bears
75-64 at Harmon Gym in January.

"Our defense wasn’t that good and they exploited that," Cal head
coach Gooch Foster said. "They just basically played a little
harder than we did."

Aside from ending a three-game skid, a win against the Golden
Bears (5-13 overall, 1-8 Pac-10) will give the Bruins some momentum
before facing the Cardinal, perfect in the Pac-10 this season.

"I think that we need to win on Friday so then Sunday will be
that much easier," Olivier said. "It won’t be easy, but we will
feel better about ourselves."

Not that the Bruins are completely lacking in confidence against
Stanford (16-2, 9-0). On Jan. 11 in Palo Alto, UCLA shot the lights
out with a season-high 58.1 percent from the field and came within
a few moments of its biggest upset of the season.

"We played them close," Olivier said. "It was just in the last
five minutes we broke down offensively. We didn’t get shots when we
need to get shots and we turned the ball over and they capitalized
on our mistakes.

"We just can’t play hard, we’ve got to play hard and smart
against someone like Stanford."

And UCLA needs to contain junior Kate Starbird. Averaging 20.2
points, Starbird torched the Bruins for a career-high 44 points to
help Stanford to an 81-77 victory.

"One of the keys is to keep (Starbird) under wraps and a player
like that you are never going to keep down," Olivier said.
"Hopefully, she won’t have any huge numbers or career highs."

One of the problems that UCLA (9-9, 4-5) had against Stanford
was the Bruins’ inability to get second chances. UCLA grabbed five
offensive rebounds compared to the Cardinal’s 21 in their last
meeting. Rebounding on both sides of the court has proved difficult
for the Bruins. In its last three games, UCLA has been out-boarded
by their opponents 131-90.

"We’re starting the second half of the conference, so we need to
start off on a positive," Olivier said. "Positive meaning that we
don’t want to turn the ball over and we need to do a better job
rebounding."

FRED HE / Daily Bruin

Freshman point guard Erica Gomez scored a career-high 24 points
in a 75-64 defeat of California at Harmon Gym in January.

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