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Overview:
UCLA fronted Chiney and played an aggressive player defense on the perimeter [Edit: match-up 2-3 zone at times] to keep our offense in check in the first half. They collected 16 O-boards and forced 16 turnovers to neutralize our superior shooting. In the second half, we simply wore them down, and their 8 healthy players could not keep up the intensity, and we pulled away from a one point lead at halftime to a 17 point win.
Flow of the game:
The atmosphere was quite good--4400 and a lot of loud kids made the place feel more full than usual and somewhat raucous. Three young boys sang the national anthem and nearly brought the house down.Â
Tara started her usual five, and a couple of threes helped us take an early lead. But then something odd happened. UCLA caught up, and stayed with us, with 14 lead changes along the way.
Cori Close knows how to defend Chiney better than any other coach in the country, as her team's performance in the Pac 12 finals last year showed. Tonight the game began much the same way. UCLA played a very close player defense on the perimeter, which made it hard to pass. It was one of those games where almost every pass had to be preceeded by a dribble. The close defense also took away many of our three point opportunities.
Inside they often fronted Chiney, meaning that the only way to get a pass to her was to lob it over the defender. I think I saw that work once all night, and when we tried it often resulted in a turnover. At other times they simply shoved and pushed her out of the paint. The defense certainly shook Chiney's early performance. She missed 4 of her first 5 shots.
UCLA's shooting was not particularly good (33%) but they got more O-boards than we did and forced 16 turnovers while committing only 6. That gave them 73 shots compared with our 58--or 15 more chances than we had. They did not have to shoot particularly well to play us close.
At one point, a UCLA player lowered her shoulder and absolutely creamed poor Karlie, who flew to the floor with a sickening thud heard throughout Maples. People shouted with fear and anger for her. Karlie got stuck with the foul, but the good news is that she came back into the game in the second half, so the dreaded concussion seems not to have materialized. This was just one of quite a number of poor calls made. Â
In the second half Sara James opened with 2 consecutive treys and we got a little distance. Even so, UCLA kept within a single digit deep in the game. We did not go up by more than 9 until there were only 7 minutes left. At that point UCLA just seemed to fade while we built a lead.
Before the game, Kate mentioned that UCLA had only 8 players and so we would try to run on them--presumably to exhaust them. I think the strategy may have worked, since UCLA seemed to falter only at the end of the game.
Performances:
Chiney really looked like she was going to be held far short of her averages, and when she picked up her third foul in the second half and had to sit, I was certain of it. But she ultimately got back in the game and chipped away and got 21--a little off pace for the all time scoring record but still a superb performance. Inexplicably, she took only 2 free throws, which in my view reflects very poor officiating. It is easy to push her out of the paint if fouls are never called for doing so.
Erica McCall looked better than she has looked all season. She would up with 12 points on 6/8 shooting. More important, she had 8 rebounds and at times looked like the only player who could snag the rebounds at all. She also had an assist and a block within 17 minutes.
Lili Thompson continues to look absolutely superb. She seemed to be equally comfortable slashing to the basket--and picking up layups and fouls--or accurately shooting the three.Â
Amber picked up two fouls and this gave Lili a chance to play point and Sara a chance to play 16 minutes. Sara was very solid, going 3/3 from three point range. Amber again was quiet offensively, although she had some superb assists, with another amazing 8 assist to 1 turnover ratio.Â
Prior to the game someone asked Kate why Sara was not getting more minutes given that she was starting. Her answer was the standard non-answer you would expect to hear--hard to find time for all the excellent players, every night match ups are different, whoever is performing best, etc. But she said one thing that I thought was a bit revealing and may indicate why Sara continues to start. She said "Sara has a lot in the bank" and referred to her fine work last season. I think that is her way of saying that she is a senior, has made important contributions to the team in the past, and so she deserves the honor of starting even if other players get more time than she does.Â
Parting Thoughts
This game is somewhat concerning. I had thought that UCLA should have been more badly over matched. My biggest positive from this game is the play of Erica McCall, who played with more confidence, scored more points, grabbed more rebounds, and seemed more at home in the system. I wonder, however, what happened to Kailee, who did not seem to play.Â
Edit: In reviewing the points scored by half, we scored exactly 36 in each half, but UCLA dropped from 35 in the first half to 20 in the second, with their FG% dropping from 40 to 26. Did we make halftime adjustments that tightened up, or was UCLA just playing at an unsustainable level in the first half, given their lack of depth?
Edit:Â I hate what TV does to game scheduling, and many fans were grumbling about the late start, about having the team on the road for two weeks in a row, and especially about a Monday dinner time game instead of the Sunday afternoon time we are used to.Â
Edit: We played only 9 players tonight--not the 14 or 15 we have been seeing in more lopsided games recently. No Alex, no Kailee (did not dress), no Tess, no Jasmine, no Erica Payne, no Briana. Are we beginning to see an end-of-the-season rotation forming? I was particularly curious not to see Alex given the temporary depletion to our guards, and I wonder what has happened to Jasmine ever since her injury, given that she was the brightest star against UConn in her frosh year.