Suffocating defense key in UCLA’s win over USC

By Scott Schultz
Daily Bruin Contributor

Sunday’s women’s basketball game between the Bruins
and the Trojans was supposed to be a contest marked by two
persistent defenses that steal the ball and force a bunch of
turnovers. But in the second half of the 65-53 UCLA victory, only
the Bruins lived up to expectations.

In the second half, the Bruins committed only three turnovers
while forcing 10, allowing UCLA to overcome a nine-point
deficit.

“Our defense is our strength right now,” UCLA head
coach Kathy Olivier said. “You can tell by our players that
we feel good about what we do defensively.”

During the key six-minute stretch in the second half where the
Bruins took the lead with a 16-1 run, they forced six Trojan
turnovers without turning the ball over themselves.

“I thought Nat (Natalie Nakase) did a great job at
disguising the defenses we were in,” Olivier said.
“They thought we were in a zone and things like that.
“

Nakase, a redshirt sophomore, played tenacious defense, leading
the Bruins with three steals and at one point had to be physically
removed from a Trojan player by her teammates. Junior Michelle
Greco also had three steals for the Bruins.

The Bruins’ success at forcing turnovers limited the
Trojans’ ability to put the ball inside for easy shots, which
was USC’s offensive strategy.

Instead the Trojans relied on perimeter shots, which led to
their undoing, as they shot an embarrassing 30 percent from the
field in the second half and an embarrassing one of 15 from
three-point range.

“We focused a lot on their players to force them to the
outside, and then we just got the rebounds and boxed out,”
Nakase said.

In the second half, the Bruins had no problems with the pressure
defense the Trojans threw at them and their own unyielding defense
set up an effective transition game that resulted in easy UCLA
baskets. In the second half, the Bruins shot 46.4 percent from the
field, an improvement upon the 37.9 percent in the first half.

“We wanted them to shoot from the outside, and that was
the plan. If they were going to beat us, they were going to beat us
from the perimeter,” Olivier said. “I thought the
players did a great job sticking with what we prepared to
do.”