Women’s basketball wins exhibition, but still has ‘soul-searching’ to do

On a night that usually sees its fair share of ghouls and ghosts, UCLA women’s basketball coach Cori Close kept with the supernatural theme when she said her team had some soul-searching to do during a halftime interview.

UCLA took over the Halloween night exhibition matchup against the Vanguard Lions early in the game, at one point leading its opponent by 11 points. But a series of violations from the team led to costly turnovers that would’ve seen the Lions finish the half with the lead if not for senior guard Thea Lemberger’s tying free throw with a second left on the clock.

“I thought we let a lot of possessions go when we weren’t all five working together on the same page, and we have to address that immediately,” Close said.

Behind sixth-year senior forward Antonye Nyingifa and junior center Luiana Livulo, who contributed 10 points each in the second half, the Bruins regained the lead and went on to close out the game, 66-57.

Sophomore guard Nirra Fields, who showed great hustle in this week’s practices, brought the same enthusiasm to the game. Fields finished the night with a standout performance – 17 points, nine rebounds and five steals.

“My teammates did a good job with pressuring the ball,” she said. “As far as my role as a player, I just tried to do my best to work hard, pressure the ball and just do everything coach asks me to do.”

Since the game against Vanguard was only an exhibition, the win will not count toward UCLA’s season tally, but Nyingifa said the team will still be able to benefit from the experience of playing outside a practice setting before the official season opener against Nebraska on Nov. 8.

“I think it’s a good feel, we were able to feel out our offense as well as our defense. We did some good things, and we saw some things we have to work on, so I think we’re able to analyze ourselves and look at the game film and really see what we need to work on before our home opening,” said Nyingifa, who ended the game with a double-double.

Although it was a happy Halloween result for the Bruins, Close said that she still wants to see improvements from her team before its first game of the season.

“Tonight I thought we sort of had a C- game and so the win means nothing, but whether or not we grew or not means a lot,” Close said. “Ultimately the buck stops with me, so if we’re not making improvements or if we’re not playing with the intensity or the focus that I think we should then I’ve got to figure that out and hold them to a higher standard.”