Team tames Huskies in surprise victory, throws Pac-10 into tailspin
By Daily Bruin Staff
March 11, 2001 9:00 p.m.
UCLA 81 Washington 56
By Will Whitehorn
Daily Bruin Contributor
To the victor goes the spoils. And the role of spoiler.
The UCLA women’s basketball team (6-23, 5-13 Pac-10) used
a second-half surge to thump No. 22 Washington 81-56 in front of
7,036 at Pauley Pavilion Saturday in the season finale for both
teams. Washington (19-9, 12-6) was denied a bid to win the Pac-10
crown outright, and the loss forged a three-way tie with Stanford
and Arizona State for the title.
The loss left Washington 0-for-2 in L.A. after suffering an
88-76 loss at USC Thursday night, and may have affected their
seeding for the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
Things started well for the Huskies, who came out aggressive on
both the offensive and defensive boards. Washington’s
rebounding presence gave them several second chance points in
building a 17-11 lead.
UCLA battled back to take a short-lived 22-21 lead on a jumper
by forward Whitney Jones. Washington recovered with a 13-4 run to
take an eight-point lead late in the first half, but Shalada Allen
buried a fall-away jumper at the halftime gun to trim
Washington’s lead to six at 34-28.
UCLA opened the second half with a 10-4 run to knot the game at
38, but Washington took advantage when forward Kristee Porter was
forced to sit after getting into foul trouble, and eked out a 45-44
lead with just over eight minutes left.
Then the flood gates opened.
In Porter’s absence, Jones and guard Michelle Greco
stepped up. Jones sandwiched two crucial jumpers around a
three-pointer by Washington guard Megan Franza, who finished with
22 points, to build a two-point lead. Greco nailed a huge
three-pointer to expand the lead to five, bringing the UCLA bench
and crowd to their feet.
UCLA continued to swarm offensively and defensively. The
Bruins’ lead grew to 10 behind another three pointer from
Greco, who had 20 points for the game after notching only six in
the first half and not scoring for the first 13 minutes. The Bruins
created turnovers on four straight Husky possessions to stymie
Washington in a crucial two-minute span, and successfully converted
their free throws, finishing with a 37-11 run to end the rout.
“(Point guard) Natalie (Nakase) and I kept saying,
“˜We have the lead,’ and we didn’t want to lose
it,” Greco said of the team’s intensity in the waning
moments of the game. “In past games, like Cal and Oregon
State, we had the lead and let them creep back in. We just kept
saying, “˜Don’t lose the lead.'”
Porter, who played most of the second half with four fouls,
returned with eight minutes left and was brilliant, grabbing
several huge rebounds and adding to her team-high 22 points and 13
boards to record a double-double.
Jones had a career-high 21 points and 10 rebounds to also record
a double-double.
The victory handed the Bruins their first win streak of the
season, and completed a convincing sweep of the Washington schools.
UCLA hammered Washington State 93-61 on Thursday.
“This is a team that never really got down all
year,” said Head Coach Kathy Olivier. “It’s kind
of fitting how we finished. It’s nice to say that if you keep
your head up, you keep plugging away, then things are going to
happen. And that’s what happened.”
