Women’s last-ditch efforts rewarded

The Notre Dame crowd was on its feet, its team holding onto a slim lead with less than 10 seconds left.

Markel Walker caught an inbounds pass and found Darxia Morris wide-open behind the arc. Morris took it from there, hitting the game-tying 3-pointer at the buzzer.

Suddenly, the nearly 8,000 fans were quiet.

The senior guard’s shot was a momentum builder. The No. 15 Bruins (3-0) would ride that momentum to an 86-83 double-overtime victory over No. 12 Notre Dame (2-1).

Morris provided the late-game heroics for a Bruin team that was struggling to find the basket.

“The (Notre Dame) defense was playing; they were worried about the post inside, and they weren’t worrying about the weak side,” the senior guard said. “Markel gave me a great pass. She was seeing me, and I got it.”

As if one last-second shot wasn’t enough, the Bruins had to pull off another one to force the second overtime.

With eight seconds left in the first overtime period, the Bruins were down 79-77 and went to junior forward Jasmine Dixon, who had her opponent sealed in the paint.

Dixon took one step in and put the ball in off the glass to tie it up again.

It was a close game the whole way, with the biggest lead of the game coming late in the first half, when UCLA went up 32-22.

That advantage would not last long.

As the result of a seemingly never-ending stream of whistles, the game slowed to a crawl, leaving both offenses struggling to find any sort of rhythm.

Both teams got into foul trouble early, leading to visible frustration from players and even the coaches.

“We just tried to stick to our game plan and not really worry about the things that we can’t control,” UCLA coach Nikki Caldwell said. “We never can control the refs, can never control what they’re doing. What we can control is how hard we play this game.”

It was a physical matchup all night. Though the Bruins were slightly undersized, both teams battled in the paint.

The physical play led to every Bruin starter recording at least two fouls and Notre Dame’s starting senior forward Becca Bruszewski tallying five.

With all the fouls, the game was essentially won by free throws. UCLA went to the line 31 times and shot 71 percent, compared to Notre Dame’s 53 percent on 19 attempts.

Morris ended the game from the stripe after sinking two free throws and earning UCLA’s final point.

“Our team stuck together … we all huddled every time, we didn’t get upset at each other … we did what (Caldwell) always says,” Walker said. “When we hit adversity, we’ve got to be stronger and be more of a team and win it.”