UCLA unable to break into win column vs. unbeaten Buffs

  JESSE PORTER/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Sophomore
Natalie Nakase drives past a USD player in a game
earlier this month. UCLA faces Long Beach State on Sunday at Pauley
Pavilion. Colorado 88 UCLA 63

By Scott Schultz
Daily Bruin Contributor

The growing pains of the 0-6 UCLA women’s basketball team
continued Saturday afternoon as they were defeated by the Colorado
Buffaloes 88-63 in Boulder.

The Bruins showed glimmers of progress between hard lessons
learned at the hands of the bigger, more experienced Buffs, who
were led by 6-foot-5 freshman Tera Bjorklund and 6-4 junior Britt
Hartshorn.

UCLA, which traveled to Colorado in search of its first victory
of the season, got off to a rocky start, falling behind 9-0 to the
Buffaloes (5-0).

The Bruins came back with tough defense and scored six straight
points to cut the lead to three, but never gained the lead.

“We allowed ourselves to get too far behind early,”
said Bruin junior Michelle Greco.

Greco led UCLA with 15 points and five assists. “Our lack
of size on offense made it difficult. They forced us to take some
tough shots,” she said.

Colorado was able to take advantage of huge mismatches in the
post, where the Buffaloes were led by Bjorklund’s 15 points
and seven rebounds in only 19 minutes of play. Hartshorn added 15
points and was 7-of-8 shooting while pulling down 10 rebounds.

UCLA stayed in the game for most of the first half. The Bruin
defense was able to confuse Colorado with its quickness, forcing
the Buffs to take perimeter jump shots. Sophomore point guard
Natalie Nakase hit a three-pointer to cut the Buffaloes’ lead
to 16-14 midway through the first half, but that’s as close
as the Bruins got.

Freshman Gennifer Arranaga again provided an offensive spark
from the bench for the Bruins with her aggressive style of play.
Scoring seven straight points for UCLA at the free throw line,
Arranaga kept the game close at 37-28, but Colorado slowly and
steadily wore the Bruins out with their tough inside game and
forced the UCLA post players to the bench with foul trouble.
Colorado went into the second half leading 44-31.

“We were flat-footed in the post. We gave up too many
second shots,” said UCLA head coach Kathy Olivier. “We
need more production from Malika (Leatham). She shows flashes where
she is going good, and then she gets into foul trouble.

“We need to keep her on the floor,” Olivier
added.

Leatham, a junior center, led the Bruins with six rebounds but
fouled out after playing only 16 minutes.

Plagued by front-line foul trouble, UCLA had no counter punch to
the Buffalo post game. And when UCLA tried double-teaming the tall
timber in the low post, the Colorado perimeter players were able to
take advantage, especially junior Caroline Koechlin, who led all
scorers with a career-high 18 points.

Colorado was quicker to the glass, out-rebounding the Bruins
51-30. The Buffs secured 19 offensive rebounds that squelched the
strong Bruin defensive effort, which held the Big 12 scoring
machine to a stingy 38.5 percent field goal clip in the second
half.

“We worked on rebounding all week. We run two lines for
every rebound we get beat,” Olivier said.
“They’re going to do a lot of running.”

On a positive note, the UCLA offense, which had been
over-reliant on Greco in recent games, had several players stepping
up to share the offensive burden on Saturday.

The Bruins got double-digit scoring from junior Shalada Allen
with 14 points, freshman Arranaga with 11 points and sophomore
Jalina Bradley, who added 10 points.

Nakase led the Bruin offense with a steady hand, dishing out a
career-high seven assists but giving up three turnovers.

This Bruin team is not the same squad which was ranked seventh
nationally last year, nor is it the top-20 team it was projected to
be in the preseason.

This is a team in transition, whose season has been impeded by
attrition, injury and an extremely difficult schedule, resulting in
the slowest start in the program’s history. But the team is
firm in its resolve to keep its head up and turn this season
around.

“We have to forget our past right now and look at every
game as a new season,” Greco said.

Nakase added, “We’re still very positive.
We’re ready to win.”

The Bruins will get another opportunity to get their first notch
in the win column on Sunday when they host Long Beach State at
Pauley Pavilion at 2 p.m.