No. 7 UCLA to play in Pac-10 Tournament championship after beating Cal 63-50
UCLA huddles on the court of Staples Center in its 63-50 win over Cal in the semifinals of the Pac-10 Tournament.
By Chris Chen
March 11, 2011 6:27 p.m.
Redshirt sophomore forward Atonye Nyingifa led the team in scoring and rebounds in the 63-50 win over Cal in the semifinals of the Pac-10 Tournament. UCLA will be facing Stanford for the championship game tomorrow.
Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott recently expressed his desire to increase conference exposure for women’s sports.
He claimed that the soon-to-be expanded conference has fallen behind other major conferences in revenue generated and in number of television broadcasts.
In an effort to perhaps increase the prestige of Pac-10 women’s basketball, the semifinals and the final of the women’s Pac-10 Tournament were scheduled to be held at the larger Staples Center instead of the Galen Center.
But for the Bruins, the venue served just as a practice arena for later, more significant tournament games.
“I feel like I am playing at home,” redshirt sophomore forward Atonye Nyingifa said. “We still had the same game plan, same mindset. Nothing’s changed since we are at Staples.”
No. 7 UCLA (27-3, 16-2 Pac-10) had put together a school record of 26 regular-season wins that has ensured the team a NCAA Tournament berth, and the Bruins were simply playing for a higher seed.
But if anything was clear in a 63-50 victory against the California Bears (17-15, 7-11), it was that the Bruins were intent on immediately taking full advantage of any enhanced exposure.
In the opening seconds, sophomore forward Markel Walker found junior forward Jasmine Dixon under the basket with a nifty wrap-around pass.
Moments later, senior guard Doreena Campbell knocked down a baseline jumper from 12 feet out following a steal by Nyingifa.
“Campbell and (senior guard Darxia) Morris really stepped up to secure the win for us,” coach Nikki Caldwell said. “These two have been huge for this program and huge for moving UCLA basketball to the level it is at right now.”
Five minutes into the first half, the Bears still hadn’t scored from the field, and the Bruins had already finished multiple opportunities in the paint in running out to an 11-1 advantage.
A confident Morris went on to make a variety of difficult perimeter shots with no hesitation, and the trio of Morris, Campbell and Nyingifa proved too much for the Bears, who were outmuscled on the boards, outhustled for the loose balls and outwitted by the Bruins’ zone pressure.
“My confidence is (based on) hard work,” Morris said. “I’m always in the gym after practice at night, so I know where my confidence comes from.”
Understandably frustrated, the Bears were never able to recover from a 14-point halftime deficit. An attempt to match the Bruins’ physicality yielded a few elbows and hard fouls, yet it didn’t rattle UCLA’s rhythm or composure.
“I don’t let any of that get to me,” Morris said. “They fouled (Campbell) really hard and that really upset me, but I kept my composure, helped Doreena up, pulled her to the side and didn’t do anything else. It’s important to hold your composure, especially in this time, because if you commit a hard foul, they can suspend you for a game and we can’t afford that.”
Especially not on Saturday, when the backcourt duo of Campbell and Morris will be tested again in the Pac-10 Tournament championship game against none other than No. 2 Stanford.
