Preview:
UCLA is having its best season in at least a decade. They are 19-2, having lost only to USC (barely) and Arizona (decisively.)
They have beaten Arizona State twice, but don't have a lot of marquee wins. They play the Oregon schools only once, at home, so considering
they are finished with the Arizona schools they have by far the easiest league schedule of any of the contenders. This makes our
one game with them absolutely crucial to us. UCLA is 10th in the AP and coaches polls, and are 6th in RPI.
UCLA is led by 6'0" forward Michaela Onyenwere who is averaging 19ppg and shooting over 50%. She is a good all-around player who grabs 8 rebounds per game, delivers some assists, and shoots the 3 at 30%.
I have nightmares about Japreece Dean, who has found a way to torch us in the past--notably two years ago which is the last time UCLA beat us. She is an experienced senior 5'7" point guard who has a whopping 94 assists at a 2:1 ratio, and is averaging 14 ppg. She is capable of cutting to the basket, pulling up, and makes treys at 30%. She is one of those shifty, quick guards who is a team player when she needs to be, but can take over a game if necessary. Defending her will not be easy.
Charisma Osborne is the new freshmen star, a 5'9" guard averaging 11 ppg. She is their best three point shooter with 40 makes at 34%. She was 3/7 in their last game against ASU.
Lauryn Miller is a 6'1" junior forward who starts, and Lindsey Corsara is the final starter--a 6'1" guard. Off the bench are a couple of familiar names such as Chantel Horvat and Natalie Chou, who transferred in and has been logging 19 minutes.
UCLA is very deep. They play 10 players in double digits and 2 more come close. They are an athletic, quick team which shoots only 28% from three point range as a team, but also nabs 10 steals a game. They are not that tall in the post but it clearly has not hurt them. They will take the ball to the rim and players like Dean have deadly mid range jumpers. Getting someone who can match up with Onyenwere and someone else to match up with Dean is going to be critical.
Overview:
UCLA played a very close defense that badly discombobulated our scheme, and while Williams had a superb game, she ran down like a spinning top by the fourth quarter when the game was on the line.
Flow of the game:
The coaches warned at the chalktalk that UCLA would be the most physical team we had played, and it is hard to prepare freshmen who have not faced that level of close defense to be ready for it. The way to solve that kind of defense, Kate said, was to take it to the rim. The UCLA defense was suffocating from the start. It was difficult to pass the ball--even to hand it off, and we were not getting lanes to take it to the rim. But in the first quarter, Williams made three treys and Brown and Lacie made one each. At one point we were shooting over 80% of our treys, and even though our offense looked awful, somehow the long range shots were going in, and we finished the quarter up 21-19.
The second quarter was an offensive debacle, with just 9 points, and it would have been even worse if Lacie had not made a trey with 2 seconds left. Lexie was entirely out of sorts and our posts had hardly touched the ball. They closed out fast on Jump, and the halftime stats were revealing. We were down 35-30, we were being grossly outrebounded, and our shooting percentage was about 10 points lower than theirs. All things considered, we were lucky to be withing 5--chiefly because of our three point shooting.
In the third quarter Prechtel began to connect with layups, and Williams put the team on her back. We entered a zone--which failed at first but then tightened up--and clawed our way back to a 45-44 lead six minutes in. But a turnover and a miss on our part rapidly gave UCLA the lead back, and they never relinquished it.
In the fourth, Williams missed 7 shots in a row, and at one point she slammed the floor in disgust after a fall. The happy-go-lucky kid was obviously frustrated. UCLA slowly expanded its lead, and then an endless fouling game began in which they got the better of us. A bright spot was that Jenna Brown relieved the exhausted Williams and acquitted herself very well.
Performances:
Let's begin by pointing out that our defense was ineffective. Onyenwere scored 29 points on an efficient 10/16 shooting, and UCLA shot 46%. At the chalk talk we were told that they were not a great shooting team but made up for it with outstanding rebounding. Somehow we made them into a pretty darn good shooting team.
In the second half we greatly improved our rebounding, so much so that we finished roughly equal for the game in both O-board and D-boards. Imagine how we would have fared had we had that effort in the first half too.
We had 14 turnovers to their 8--this made a significant difference. But in general, what cost us the game was that we took difficult shots and they got more clean looks. Their defense was better than our defense.
As individuals, Williams played her heart out for 38 minutes, and had 25 points, and 4/7 three point shots. But she started 3/3 from three point land, and basically all her offensive energy seems to have been expended in the first three quarters. It is also worth noting that she had 8 assists to 3 turnovers, which was truly outstanding. She also took a spill, and she did not seem to be her old self after the spill
Prechtel had a double double with 10 points and 12 rebounds. Lacie was the better Hull tonight with 12 points; Lexie had 6 and seemed stymied tonight, shooting 2/8. Jenna Brown had one of her better nights, scoring 9 points in 9 minutes. Fingall did not score and played only 18 minutes.
Conclusion:
I think this game gives us an accurate picture of where we are. Without Carrington, Dodson, and Jones we are not really good enough to compete with other elite teams. I expect this won't be the last loss at Maples this year, sadly. To have won this game we would have needed more offense out of Lexie and better defense out of everyone. Let's hope we can defeat SC on Sunday, and do it without sustaining other injuries.
UCLA is having its best season in at least a decade. They are 19-2, having lost only to USC (barely) and Arizona (decisively.)
They have beaten Arizona State twice, but don't have a lot of marquee wins. They play the Oregon schools only once, at home, so considering
they are finished with the Arizona schools they have by far the easiest league schedule of any of the contenders. This makes our
one game with them absolutely crucial to us. UCLA is 10th in the AP and coaches polls, and are 6th in RPI.
UCLA is led by 6'0" forward Michaela Onyenwere who is averaging 19ppg and shooting over 50%. She is a good all-around player who grabs 8 rebounds per game, delivers some assists, and shoots the 3 at 30%.
I have nightmares about Japreece Dean, who has found a way to torch us in the past--notably two years ago which is the last time UCLA beat us. She is an experienced senior 5'7" point guard who has a whopping 94 assists at a 2:1 ratio, and is averaging 14 ppg. She is capable of cutting to the basket, pulling up, and makes treys at 30%. She is one of those shifty, quick guards who is a team player when she needs to be, but can take over a game if necessary. Defending her will not be easy.
Charisma Osborne is the new freshmen star, a 5'9" guard averaging 11 ppg. She is their best three point shooter with 40 makes at 34%. She was 3/7 in their last game against ASU.
Lauryn Miller is a 6'1" junior forward who starts, and Lindsey Corsara is the final starter--a 6'1" guard. Off the bench are a couple of familiar names such as Chantel Horvat and Natalie Chou, who transferred in and has been logging 19 minutes.
UCLA is very deep. They play 10 players in double digits and 2 more come close. They are an athletic, quick team which shoots only 28% from three point range as a team, but also nabs 10 steals a game. They are not that tall in the post but it clearly has not hurt them. They will take the ball to the rim and players like Dean have deadly mid range jumpers. Getting someone who can match up with Onyenwere and someone else to match up with Dean is going to be critical.
Overview:
UCLA played a very close defense that badly discombobulated our scheme, and while Williams had a superb game, she ran down like a spinning top by the fourth quarter when the game was on the line.
Flow of the game:
The coaches warned at the chalktalk that UCLA would be the most physical team we had played, and it is hard to prepare freshmen who have not faced that level of close defense to be ready for it. The way to solve that kind of defense, Kate said, was to take it to the rim. The UCLA defense was suffocating from the start. It was difficult to pass the ball--even to hand it off, and we were not getting lanes to take it to the rim. But in the first quarter, Williams made three treys and Brown and Lacie made one each. At one point we were shooting over 80% of our treys, and even though our offense looked awful, somehow the long range shots were going in, and we finished the quarter up 21-19.
The second quarter was an offensive debacle, with just 9 points, and it would have been even worse if Lacie had not made a trey with 2 seconds left. Lexie was entirely out of sorts and our posts had hardly touched the ball. They closed out fast on Jump, and the halftime stats were revealing. We were down 35-30, we were being grossly outrebounded, and our shooting percentage was about 10 points lower than theirs. All things considered, we were lucky to be withing 5--chiefly because of our three point shooting.
In the third quarter Prechtel began to connect with layups, and Williams put the team on her back. We entered a zone--which failed at first but then tightened up--and clawed our way back to a 45-44 lead six minutes in. But a turnover and a miss on our part rapidly gave UCLA the lead back, and they never relinquished it.
In the fourth, Williams missed 7 shots in a row, and at one point she slammed the floor in disgust after a fall. The happy-go-lucky kid was obviously frustrated. UCLA slowly expanded its lead, and then an endless fouling game began in which they got the better of us. A bright spot was that Jenna Brown relieved the exhausted Williams and acquitted herself very well.
Performances:
Let's begin by pointing out that our defense was ineffective. Onyenwere scored 29 points on an efficient 10/16 shooting, and UCLA shot 46%. At the chalk talk we were told that they were not a great shooting team but made up for it with outstanding rebounding. Somehow we made them into a pretty darn good shooting team.
In the second half we greatly improved our rebounding, so much so that we finished roughly equal for the game in both O-board and D-boards. Imagine how we would have fared had we had that effort in the first half too.
We had 14 turnovers to their 8--this made a significant difference. But in general, what cost us the game was that we took difficult shots and they got more clean looks. Their defense was better than our defense.
As individuals, Williams played her heart out for 38 minutes, and had 25 points, and 4/7 three point shots. But she started 3/3 from three point land, and basically all her offensive energy seems to have been expended in the first three quarters. It is also worth noting that she had 8 assists to 3 turnovers, which was truly outstanding. She also took a spill, and she did not seem to be her old self after the spill
Prechtel had a double double with 10 points and 12 rebounds. Lacie was the better Hull tonight with 12 points; Lexie had 6 and seemed stymied tonight, shooting 2/8. Jenna Brown had one of her better nights, scoring 9 points in 9 minutes. Fingall did not score and played only 18 minutes.
Conclusion:
I think this game gives us an accurate picture of where we are. Without Carrington, Dodson, and Jones we are not really good enough to compete with other elite teams. I expect this won't be the last loss at Maples this year, sadly. To have won this game we would have needed more offense out of Lexie and better defense out of everyone. Let's hope we can defeat SC on Sunday, and do it without sustaining other injuries.