Bruins sock it to the Slovakians in nail-biting preseason opener

Friday, November 7, 1997

Bruins sock it to the Slovakians in nail-biting preseason
opener

RECAP: Leadership of point guard Erica Gomez brings 66-63
victory in exhibition game

By David Arnold

Daily Bruin Contributor

Last night capped off the beginning of the UCLA women’s
basketball team’s 1997-1998 season. The Bruins opened their season
with a win over Sam Myjava of Slovakia, 66-63.

Despite the fact that they emerged triumphant, it was by no
means an easy victory. Sophomore forward Maylana Martin missed two
crucial free throws in the final seconds of the game, star
sophomore point guard Erica Gomez was playing her first game back
from knee surgery that forfeited her 1996-1997 season, and opposing
guard Anna Archipova shot 10-of-12, with three three-pointers, for
29 points.

And No. 25 UCLA still beat the visiting Slovakians in front of
238 people on Thursday night.

The biggest news may be Gomez’s return to Bruin basketball, a
highly anticipated event in light of Gomez’s 1996 Pac-10 Freshman
of the Year performance and billing as "the consummate point
guard." Gomez looked tentative in the first half, finishing with
five turnovers, but stayed tenacious on defense to the end. She
recorded three steals and settled into dishing it to her teammates
for six assists.

"Erika looks like she hasn’t skipped a beat," said head coach
Kathy Oliver. "Maybe she just tried to do too much." For Oliver, it
was huge that the team won a close game. Even though this is a team
that boasts back-to-back conference Freshman of the Year awards
(the latter given to Martin) and seven players that have started at
least 14 games, it is also a team with six players who haven’t
played with Gomez before. As Oliver put it: "They’re still getting
used to her and her passing style."

The Slovakian team had been playing together longer and had a
slight height advantage. The Slovakians tried to stretch the court
with deep passing in an attempt to speed up the game. This
strategy, however, backfired somewhat because of heads-up play by
the Bruins that resulted in 23 Slovakian turnovers. UCLA had 17
turnovers, which is, as Oliver said, "good for us."

Despite being 0-for-3 from the line, Martin (who finished with
11 rebounds and 12 points in 29 minutes) was on the winning team
after a night of waging war in the paint against the very physical
Slovakians.

The Slovakians were playing on NCAA rules in which the paint
isn’t as wide and the ball isn’t as large as in the international
rules.

This is the first of two exhibition games the women’s basketball
team will play against foreign teams. UCLA will next play Kilsyth
Cobras on Wednesday before jumping into their regular season
against Saint Mary’s College on Nov. 21

The Bruins coaching staff is optimistic about the upcoming
season and the team has high expectations for itself this year. The
Bruins have all of their returning starters from last year and
should fair well in competition.

The players are also optimistic of their chances against last
year’s Pac-10 champions, the Stanford Cardinal, largely because of
the losses sustained by national power Stanford in the graduation
of Kate Starbird and Jamila Wideman. "Stanford’s strengths are our
strengths," said Oliver, "so we match up really well with
them."

But the Bruins will have to wait until Jan. 18 for the first of
their two games against the Cardinal. This may be a positive thing
for a team that Oliver said "lacks big game experience."