Women’s basketball finds success with new formula
After struggling in close games at the start of conference play, the Bruins have improved their play late in games. UCLA’s last three wins were decided by seven points or less.
By Derrek Li
Feb. 4, 2014 12:30 a.m.
The game clock was ticking down and UCLA was only up by three over Washington State. But after the ball found its way into senior guard Thea Lemberger’s hands and she drew the foul, a wave of relief washed over the Pauley Pavilion crowd.
About a minute later, the Bruins closed out the game by hitting nine out of 10 free throws, winning by seven.
UCLA women’s basketball has had its fair share of both close wins and close losses, but the Bruins have begun to improve their end-of-game play after letting too many games slip just out of reach.
Kicking off Pac-12 play more than a month ago, UCLA began conference play losing three of its first six games by just two points.
But in the past three games in which the Bruins found themselves in a fight down the stretch, they clawed their way out each time with the win.
It’s an improvement that comes from a better focus on controlling the things that are controllable.
“In the ones we all lost by one possession, I thought our effort and our focus was pretty good,” said coach Cori Close. “It was just a couple of possessions that were under our control we didn’t take care of.”
When UCLA lost to USC on Dec. 30 and Colorado six days later, it was UCLA’s lack of defensive rebounds that allowed both teams multiple second chances to score late in the game.
And after the Bruins seemed to grasp a better control on the boards against Arizona State, the turnovers piled up and UCLA gave away yet another two-point game in the middle of January.
After three two-point losses in the span of three weeks, the Bruins began to turn a corner. Behind the steady leadership of Lemberger and sixth-year senior forward Atonye Nyingifa, UCLA came out with a five-point win over Oregon Jan. 17 after the game was tied with just 1:44 to go.
Following the win, Lemberger joked that the team liked to keep the games close because they “like to give coach gray hair.”
Three days later, and the Bruins were right back to changing Close’s hair color. UCLA found itself tied with Oregon State 55-55 with 4:36 left and pulled out another close win behind passion, grit, hustle and togetherness
On Sunday, the Bruins edged out Washington State, making it three straight close-margin wins after a few too many heartbreaks.
“(Sunday’s) game we really looked inside our ourselves,” Nyingifa said. “They tied it 53-53 and our team just rallied together and said, ‘No, we will not allow this to happen over and over, we’re going to put a stop to it.'”
Judging from the recent results in which UCLA ran off the court in celebration instead of trudging off it with eyes wandering off into the distance, the Bruins have figured out some sort of a formula.
It starts with a total team effort filled with heart and a desire to win all the hustle plays and 50-50 balls.
Then sprinkle in the ability to control what can be controlled, such as the little things like boxing out, rebounding or getting the ball into the hands of the best free-throw shooters at the end of games.
Finally, add in a healthy dose of Lemberger, whose leadership and steadiness is something Close said she relies on to really control the team and the game. It doesn’t hurt that she’s also the team’s best free-throw shooter.
“We were able to knock down some big free throws,” Lemberger said. “Even when (Washington State) scored, we held them because we were able to knock down our free throws.”
Mix it all together and this team that struggled early on with closing out games has found its way.
While no one can really relax down the stretch with the game on the line, UCLA has discovered a recipe that makes it just a little more controllable.
