Bruins, fed up with losing, put their foot down, pummel hapless Beavers

Monday, February 3, 1997

W. HOOPS:

UCLA rebounds with win at Pauley Pavilion after a disappointing
losing streakBy A. CinQue Carter

Daily Bruin Contributor

Before 3,025 uncharacteristically hostile, noisy fans in Pauley
Pavilion, the UCLA women’s basketball team finally got a
victory.

After starting off the season at a very impressive 7-3, the
Bruins dropped six of seven and fell to seventh place in the Pac-10
and an overall record of 8-9.

After falling to Oregon on Friday, the Bruins (9-9, 3-6 Pac-10)
decided they were absolutely fed up with losing and beat up on the
Beavers of Oregon State, 77-54.

"We finally got sick of losing. We know what we have to do to
win and we just finally took care of business," Maylana Martin
said. Martin finished with 11 points, five rebounds, three assists
and two steals.

Taking care of business included limiting themselves to only 17
turnovers, a season low for the Bruins in conference games.

Conversely, UCLA stole the ball 24 times en route to forcing an
astounding 38 turnovers. Juniors Tawana Grimes (12 points, five
assists and eight steals) and Aisha Veasley (five steals and six
rebounds) paced the Bruin attack.

"We had big leadership from Tawana and Aisha tonight," head
coach Kathy Olivier said after the victory. "The tone was set by
our defense. We started with the press and that gave us the
intensity we needed."

The Bruin press enabled the team to go on four major runs
throughout the game. With 15:06 remaining in the first half, UCLA
broke a tie with a seven-point run. Thirteen minutes later, the
Bruins closed the first half with another 7-0 run and then opened
the second half with yet another seven-point run and took a 44-28
lead.

After the Beavers had managed to cut the deficit to 13 midway
through the second half, UCLA went on a 9-0 run to go up 63-41 and
put the game out of reach.

A final seven-point run concluded the afternoon for the Bruins
and left them in a sixth-place tie with Oregon State (9-9,
3-6).

"We played extremely well together," freshman Janae Hubbard said
after contributing 25 points in 27 minutes over the weekend,
including a 16-point effort versus OSU. "We never gave them a
chance to get back into the game."

Added Marie Philman who had 14 points, three assists and three
steals over the two contests, "We took a lot of chances today and
kept the intensity up."

Those chances started with Olivier staying with whoever was hot.
For instance, Carla Houser pulled down seven rebounds and scored
six points in 16 minutes of action.

In all, the Bruins saw 10 of their players reach double digits
in minutes and saw four of their players double in scoring.

As Olivier mentioned before the Oregon game, "We have to play
hard for teams other than the Stanfords and the ‘SCs."

That didn’t happen against the Ducks on Friday evening as the
Bruins were outlasted 76-64 in Pauley.

But, it did happen against the Beavers.

JON FERREY

Aisha Veasley and Maylana Martin strip the ball from Betty Ann
Boeving of Oregon.