W. basketball underestimates Wildcats’ meow
By Daily Bruin Staff
Feb. 15, 1996 9:00 p.m.
W. basketball underestimates Wildcats’ meow
By Emmanuelle Ejercito
Daily Bruin Staff
This time Arizona had a lead that the UCLA women’s basketball
team could not overcome.
First in the conference in scoring offense and field goal
percentage, the Wildcats proved their offensive prowess in tearing
apart the Bruins 95-66 Thursday night at the McKale Center.
Arizona connected on 56.7 percent of its shots in the game.
Meanwhile, against the 2-3 zone, the Bruins only made 21 baskets in
the entire game, shooting 31.3 percent. No one on the UCLA roster
made more than three baskets.
The Wildcats (15-5 overall, 6-5 Pacific 10), wanting to avenge
their earlier loss to the Bruins, came out strong – with less than
five minutes elapsed in the game, Arizona had already built an
11-point 15-4 lead.
The score at halftime was 40-26 in favor of the Wildcats.
Erica Gomez being whistled for her fourth foul with 14:04 left
in the game did not help the Bruins’ cause. Gomez, who usually
plays nearly the entire 40 minutes, only played 30.
However, senior Ricarda Kuypers played well in her 10 minutes of
action. She scored a team-high 11 points, nine of which came from
beyond the three-point arc.
Nickey Hilbert, who leads the Bruins in scoring, did not find
the basket until halfway through the second half. Her basket with
10:18 left in the game cut the Wildcat lead to 58-45. Following
Hilbert’s basket, UCLA stole the ball and Hilbert attempted a three
pointer in hopes of pulling within 10. But the shot missed.
At the other end of the court, Andrea Constand made a layup and
was fouled by Zrinka Kristich. Constand made the free throw to
complete the three-point play and push the Arizona lead back to 16.
The Bruins never recovered.
On Saturday, the UCLA women’s basketball team (10-11, 5-7) will
hop over to Tempe to face Arizona State.
The perennial Pac-10 cellar-dweller finished the first half of
the season with a surprising 81-77 win over Washington in
Seattle.
The victory ended the Sun Devils’ conference drought, as they
snapped a 19-game losing streak. It also snapped a 14-game road
losing streak.
But when the Bruins last met ASU, UCLA convincingly won 84-74
with the help of Nickey Hilbert’s career-high 33 points.
ASU (5-15, 1-10) will be led by Emma Witkowski, whose 35 points
against the Bruins earlier this season, was a career high of her
own. Also, a change in the lineup for the Sun Devils is the
addition of Molly Tuter and point-guard Julie Gledhill to the
starting lineup.
Despite coming off bench, Tuter averages the most minutes (24.6)
and the most points (14.6) for ASU. Comments to
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