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UCLA women’s basketball ends regular season with Utah win

With UCLA down seven points to Utah early in the second half, sophomore guard Nirra Fields brought an offensive spark for the Bruins, pushing them past the Utes.

(Miriam Bribiesca/Daily Bruin)

By Derrek Li

March 3, 2014 12:46 a.m.

It wasn’t always pretty, but UCLA women’s basketball ended the regular season with a win.

Heading into its final weekend before the Pac-12 conference tournament, the Bruins were looking to continue the focus and aggression that they found against the California Golden Bears and the Stanford Cardinal last week.

Instead, UCLA (13-17, 7-11 Pac-12) couldn’t get any shots to fall against Colorado (16-13, 6-12) on Friday, losing 62-42. But Sunday proved different when UCLA refocused to beat Utah (11-18, 4-12) 62-52 to end the regular season.

The Bruins had taken a three-point lead into halftime in Colorado. When they came out the locker room for the second half, it was as if someone had covered the basket with a lid.

For close to the next 12 minutes, UCLA only managed to score four points. That three-point lead vanished and the Bruins just couldn’t score. They shot 12 percent from the field and only managed to put up 12 points in the second half.

The 42 points was the lowest UCLA had scored all season.

“We were very shaky offensively,” said sixth-year senior forward Atonye Nyingifa. “We just couldn’t get a nice rhythm, a nice flow.”

That offensive flow seemed to be at even bigger jeopardy against Utah when, before the game, it was announced that senior guard Thea Lemberger was going to sit out the game to rest her ailing knee.

With the team missing its starting point guard, sophomore guard Nirra Fields stepped up and filled in the hole.

Still, the Bruins found themselves down seven with 18 minutes left. That’s when UCLA made its run, behind Fields’ 22 points.

“We just decided that we were going to fight back in the second half,” Fields said. “We came back by being passionate, trying to make our runs off defense and getting stops.”

Fields made sure that the offense wouldn’t hit a wall like it did on Friday. She forced her way into the heart of the Utah defense, drawing foul after foul.

After only shooting two free throws all game against Colorado, Fields went 13-of-17 from the free throw line on Sunday while the Bruins closed out the game and the season with the win.

“We were mentally tougher today, especially with (Thea Lemberger) not playing,” said coach Cori Close. “Everyone knew they had to step up. There were no ‘ifs’ and ‘hopes’ or ‘maybes,’ you had to.”

With the end of the regular season, UCLA has a short turnaround before its first game in the Pac-12 conference tournament.

UCLA plays its first game on Thursday against Colorado. The Bruins won’t be looking for “ifs” or “maybes,” they’ll be looking to continue where they left off this weekend, with a win.

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Derrek Li | Alumnus
Li joined the Bruin as a freshman in 2013 and contributed until he graduated in 2017. He was an assistant Sports editor for the 2014-2015 academic year and spent time on the football, men's basketball, women's basketball, men's soccer, track and field, cross country and swim and dive beats.
Li joined the Bruin as a freshman in 2013 and contributed until he graduated in 2017. He was an assistant Sports editor for the 2014-2015 academic year and spent time on the football, men's basketball, women's basketball, men's soccer, track and field, cross country and swim and dive beats.
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