Women’s basketball looks for redemption against No. 10 Oklahoma
Senior guard Thea Lemberger believes UCLA can play well against Oklahoma if the Bruins can improve their defense and control the game. In last season’s matchup against Oklahoma in the NCAA tournament, Lemberger said that the UCLA let Oklahoma impose its gameplay on the Bruins, who eventually fell to the Sooners.
By Chris Kalra
Nov. 22, 2013 1:45 a.m.
It’s been almost eight months to the date, but members of
the UCLA women’s basketball team haven’t forgotten what happened.
Sixth-year senior forward Atonye Nyingifa can still remember the barrage of 3-pointers.
Senior guard Thea Lemberger can still remember the disappointment of a downtrodden UCLA women’s basketball team afterward.
And coach Cori Close can still remember the feeling of falling short of expectations.
Those memories were from the team’s second-round upset loss to Oklahoma in the NCAA tournament last March, which abruptly ended one of the Bruins’ best seasons – in terms of total wins – in program history.
This Sunday, UCLA (1-2) has a chance for a bit of redemption, playing No. 10 Oklahoma (4-1) once again.
“It’s definitely a personal factor. You don’t like a team to beat you, especially knock you out of the tournament,” Lemberger said.
In that late-March game, Oklahoma kept launching – and hitting – 3-pointers, sinking 11 in total, along with the Bruins’ Final Four hopes.
“They really hurt us with the 3-point shot in the NCAA tournament last year,” Close said. “So we’re really focused on transition D … and stopping all of their great offensive weapons on the perimeter.”
Adding to the Bruins’ troubles in the loss was their struggling offense, which Lemberger attributed to a trickle-down effect from the team’s defensive woes.
“We weren’t fighting until the end of the game (on defense),” Lemberger said.
“We didn’t fight back and say, ‘No, you’re not going to be able to do that, we’re going to get stops, we’re going to make you do (things) different and we’re going to show you what we can do.’ We kind of let them impose that on us, and the game continued that way.”
This time around, UCLA looks to make its defensive presence known, according to Close. It’ll start with slowing down Oklahoma’s “prolific” scorer, Aaryn Ellenberg, who hit six of 13 3-pointers in the March game.
“One of the keys for our defense is to slow her down, slow her down in transition and minimize her 3-pointers, and try to get other players to make plays,” Nyingifa said.
The game will also be the Bruins’ third matchup with the Sooners in the last 12 months. The two teams met early last November, when UCLA upset then-No. 11 ranked Oklahoma in an early-season statement win. Now, the question remains: Can UCLA do it again?
“Definitely. I think this team is definitely capable,” Lemberger said. “But it’s going to be the same thing. It’s going to be about our defense, putting a full game together – a 40-minute game. (But) this team is definitely capable.”
