Excess of Sun Devil seniors proves disastrous for UCLA
By Daily Bruin Staff
Feb. 18, 2002 9:00 p.m.
Arizona State 64 UCLA 42
By Adam Titcher
Daily Bruin Contributor
One thing the UCLA women’s basketball team could not do
this past weekend was break a tradition. Going into its game
against Arizona State, UCLA had to deal with too many Sun Devil
seniors. Five, to be exact.
Behind senior Amanda Levens’ team-high 13 points and nine
assists, ASU routed UCLA 64-42 on Senior Day at Wells Fargo
Arena.
“Our five seniors have helped establish a winning
tradition here,” ASU head coach Charli Turner Thorne said.
“I’m really proud of them because any one of them can
be in the starting lineup any night.”
While ASU (21-7, 12-5 Pac-10) posted 34 points from its seniors,
UCLA (7-18,3-13) could not compare. UCLA senior Shalada Allen had
10 rebounds.
But no Bruin hit double figures in any other category, including
points, to even put up a competition. Rather, the Bruins fell
behind fast in the first minutes of the game. By the end of the
first half, the they were already down 30-18.
“A couple of times we struggled offensively, and we needed
clean looks because Arizona State was not going to give us plenty
of opportunities,” UCLA coach Kathy Olivier said.
The Sun Devils did not, and instead continued to take advantage
of Bruin mistakes. UCLA turned the ball over seven more times than
ASU, had six more fouls and 11 fewer assists in the end.
Down the stretch, the game began to look like every other game
UCLA has played this season. After an 11-0 run by ASU, the Bruins
were down 49-28 with a little more than seven minutes remaining.
They were out of it.
“We started pretty well, but they just pulled away,”
UCLA guard Natalie Nakase said. “There have been some bright
spots for us this season, but it still just sits in the back of my
head that we lost two of our starters.”
The Bruins still continue to look for their shooter. This late
in the season, that presence is missed, as shown by junior guard
Jalina Bradley’s team-high eight points. The Bruins feel
their heart and effort is established but their overall game is
just lacking finesse.
So the Sun Devils won, and their seniors were happy. Whether or
not UCLA’s lack of upperclassman prevented the Bruins from
winning was never an issue. The fact still remained that the team
shot 31 percent compared to ASU’s 40 percent performance.
“It has been a rough season,” Olivier said.
“We are hanging in there,though, and my hat goes off to the
team because I think they continue to work hard.”
