WBBall Defeats Washington 69-65

Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

UCLA completed a very important road sweep today, defeating a pesky Washington tame 69-65, marking 2 road sweeps UCLA now can boast for their record (albeit this is probably the easiest road sweep in conference, but previous UCLA teams could not pull it off).  UCLA started the game off with an 8-2 run, but a 9-2 Washington run gave the Huskies their first lead at 9:22 in the first, at 13-12.  From that point in time, the teams would trade the lead, with no team leading by more than 4, and Washington would take a 30-28 lead into the half.  UCLA was allowing the Huskies to shoot almost 57% in the first half, which is not like this team to allow such a high shooting percentage.

In the second half, the Bruins opened with a 7-1 run to regain the lead at 35-31.  Washington retook the lead with 13:05 left in the game.  Te teams would trade scores until Doreena Campbell put UCLA ahead 53-52 from the freethrow line with 5:12 remaining.  Jasmine Dixon hit a layup, Darxia Morris drew a charge, and Doreena Campbell hit a 3 to give the bruins a 58-52 lead with 3:03 remaining.  Washington in the final 30 seconds cut the lead to 4, but turned the ball over and UCLA held on to get the win.

UCLA was lead by Jasmine Dixon who has yet again set a new career high with 25 points on 9-14 shooting, and an improved 7-11 from the line.  She also had 9 rebounds, the most for the team.  Doreena Campbell had 21, connecting on 3 of 4 three pointers.  Darxia Morris also had 9 points, taking only 3 shots the entire game, which is low for her.

There continues to be some confusing personnel matters.  Once again it appears as though Mariah Williams and Rebekah Gardner got the start over Darxia Morris and Markel Walker, yet Walker and Morris logged more minutes.  I'm very curious to figure out if this is true, and why.  Mariah and Rebekah aren't big scorers, and in fact 3 of our starters, Erica Tukiainen, Mariah, and Rebekah combined for only 5 points.  Markel Walker had another disappointing game with only 4 points and  2 rebounds, making a very unimpressive washington trip with only 5 points on the weekend.  I wish i could have watched the game and not just read the box score to figure out what was going on, and if Markel is just struggling terribly, or if Nikki knows that right now Jasmine and Doreena are on fire and they need to be the team's 1-2 punch.  Also, former Bruin Regina Rogers played against the Bruins for the first time, but did not score in 10 minutes of play.

Looking at the box score, UCLA outshot the Huskies 50% to 47%, but i'll bet the Nikki is not happy with that shooting percentage allowed.  UCLA out rebounded the Huskies 31-23, cut down on turnovers (relatively) with 18, and forced 9 steals.  Once again, UCLA struggled form the line shooting 66% on 21-32 shooting.  I'm willing to forgive the high shooting percentage for the Huskies as a 1 game aberration, but the freethrow percentage NEEDS to improve.

Now 12-6, 5-2 in conference, UCLA returns home to host the Oregon schools to round out the first half of conference play.  Oregon has fallen flat on their face, losing 4 in a row, and Oregon State is in 9th place in conference with only 1 win against last place Washington state.  UCLA needs to still be wary of Oregon, who leads the nation in scoring, and put up 80 on a very good defensive Stanford team today (though they gave up 100 points).  If UCLA's defense can hold Oregon in check, and UCLA gets the sweep, i think a 7-2 first half of conference would be something to be ecstatic about.