Bruins fall for first time in Pac-10

Friday, February 5, 1999

Bruins fall for first time in Pac-10

WHOOPS: Poor shooting against Ducks leads way to 106-79
conference loss

By A. CinQue Carter

Daily Bruin Staff

And the sky came tumbling down in a major way. Before 7,934 at
McArthur

Court the UCLA womenis basketball team saw their ten game win
streak

come to a screeching halt at the hands of the Oregon Ducks.

Freshman guard Shaquala Williams led the Oregon onslaught with
31 points

and seven assists to pace the Ducks (17-4, 8-2 Pac-10) in their
106 to

79 victory.

The Bruins held a two game lead over the Ducks in conference
play and

had already defeated every conference team once so far. They

will have to work even harder, however, as they continue part
two of their Pac-10

tour because now the conference sees them as beatable.

The Bruins all agreed that the first game against the Ducks
meant very

little other than the fact that their 76-72 escape gave Oregon
more

motivation this time around.

"Weire not going to be able to take them lightly," sophomore
shooting

guard said of Oregon prior to touching down in Eugene. "They
gave us the

game the first time around. So theyire gunning for us now. We
need to

play 40 minutes. We canit take breaks."

"Itis definitely going to be tough," sophomore Ayesha Rembert
said

before the game, "playing on their home court. Itis going to be
sold out

so there will be pressure. But if we play like we can play then
we

should be able to pull out the win."

But the Bruins did not play like they could have. Despite Oregon
coming

into the contest sixth in scoring defense, allowing only 56.7
points per

game (PPG), UCLA was fourth in the nation in scoring with 87.1
PPG. Both

trends were broken but UCLA froze up on offense and gave up
quite a bit

more than the 71.5 PPG they were averaging.

The loss ranks as the first of the conference season for the
17-5 Bruins

(9-1, Pac-10) and slims their lead over Oregon in the conference
race to

just one game with eight to play.

UCLA trailed only 45-34 at the half while shooting only ten for
40

(.250) from the field and figured to do better in the second
half,

making up the 11-point deficit.

On the other side of the coin, the Ducks shot nearly 65% in the
second

half to finish at .574 on the night.

Oregon head coach Jody Rungeis teams are 64-13 at McArthur Court
in her

six seasons at the helm and 11-1 this season.

The first step on the Bruinsi road to recovery is Saturday at
Oregon

State (11-8, 3-7). The Beavers are coming off of a 55-49 victory
over

USC last night.

The victory gives them just one win in their last five contests
and

three in their last ten. Statistically, OSU is near the bottom
of the

Pac in most categories except for rebounding defense, scoring
defense

and field goal percentage defense where they stand in second
place.

Conversely, UCLA is near the top in each category and is looking
to

rebound from a tough defeat last night. Additionally, the Bruins
already

defeated the Beavers 105-50 on January 8 at Pauley Pavilion.

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