Women’s Basketball Notebook (ONLINE EXTRA!)

Valuable reserves

Two Bruin reserves who have been providing some valuable minutes
off the bench are sophomore guard Jalina Bradley and junior center
Shalada Allen.

Bradley, who started the first 11 games of the season, moved to
the bench after two-sport star Whitney Jones joined the team.
Although Bradley’s minutes have been cut by an average of 10
minutes per game since then, her scoring and rebounding statistics
have barely suffered.

One statistic that has shrunk, however, is the number of
turnovers she’s committed per game. In the games she started,
Bradley averaged almost one turnover per 11.3 minutes on the court.
But since she moved to the bench, she’s averaging only one
turnover every 22.2 minutes.

Her dependable play was prevalent during the Bruins’
recent loss to the Ducks. When starting point guard Natalie Nakase
sat out for a six-minute stretch in the first half with foul
trouble and Bradley came into the game, the Bruins remained neck
and neck with the Pac-10 leading Ducks.

Allen, a junior college transfer from Texas, has been averaging
a rebound for every three minutes on the floor during conference
play, which averages out to more than 13 rebounds per 40 minutes on
the floor.

Ms. Durability

Junior guard Michelle Greco, who leads the Pac-10 in scoring
with an average of 20.1 points per game, was removed from the first
half of the Oregon game after receiving a hard elbow to the
head.

Greco, who suffered a series of minor concussions last season,
sat down for a minute and returned to play for the remainder of the
game.

“Whenever you get hit hard in the head, it takes a minute
to clear the cobwebs,”Greco said.

The durable Greco leads the Pac-10 in minutes per game at 35 and
an astonishing 38 minutes in conference play.

Struggles continue

There’s no way to steer away from this distinction. Though
the Bruins may have held hope that a .500 season was still in
reach, their two losses over the weekend to Oregon and Oregon State
secured them a losing season and a record below .500 for the first
time since the 1996-97 squad went 13-14. With a 3-15 record going
into the weekend and only 11 games remaining on their schedule,
UCLA remains optimistic, however.

“We’re glad we’re playing at home,” head
coach Kathy Olivier said. “Though every game is going to be
tough for us, we think we can play with any team in the conference
at home.”

Another one bites the dust

A week after Stanford fell out of the top-25 in the AP Poll, the
Arizona Wildcats, who suffered a devastating 67-57 loss to Arizona
State in their rivalry matchup, also dropped from the AP’s
top rankings. The Wildcats, who began the season with an impressive
14-2 record, have now lost three games in a row and are struggling
to regain the form that helped them win their first four Pac-10
contests.

The lone Pac-10 school that remains in the top-25 of the latest
AP Poll are the conference leading Oregon Ducks, who fell two spots
to No. 22. Oregon has held on to their top-25 distinction for 12
consecutive weeks, the best mark under coach Judy Runge, and second
only to the 1980-81 squad which remained ranked for 18 consecutive
weeks. Arizona State, who now shares the conference lead with the
Ducks, led all other Pac-10 schools in votes received with 22,
followed by Arizona with 12 and Stanford with six.

Notes compiled by Joshua Mason and Scott Schultz, Daily Bruin
Reporters.