Stanford 96 UCLA 61
By Jackie Abellada
Daily Bruin Contributor
The Bruins gave it all they got in the Pac-10 tournament.
Too bad a dozen or so redwoods stood in their way.
Participating in the inaugural women’s basketball Pac-10
Tournament held in MacArthur Court, “The Pit” of
Eugene, Oregon, the UCLA Bruins were outgunned by the No. 2 ranked
Stanford Cardinal this past Saturday, losing by a score of
96-61.
Lindsey Yamasaki, Stanford’s season leading scorer with
17.4 points per contest, did not play in the game and will not play
in the Pac-10 Tournament after undergoing a laparoscopic
appendectomy last Tuesday.
Nevertheless, the absence of Yamasaki did not seem to affect the
Cardinal’s offense as almost all of the players in the
red-and-white jerseys stepped it up a notch offensively.
Freshman Azella Perryman came off the bench to lead the Cardinal
with a career-high 17 points, including shooting 11-of-12 from the
free-throw line. Sebnem Kimyacioglu, another freshman, tied her
season-high with 14 points, all in the first half. Nicole Powell,
the Pac-10 Player-of-the-Year, added 15 points and 9 assists of her
own.
“Stanford is just so deep,” Bruin head coach Kathy
Olivier said. “They just have so much options. They can
either shoot the perimeter or pass it down low in the
post.”
More than a third of the Cardinal’s offensive output came
from the free-throw line, where they made an impressive 33-of-35
attempts ““ 94.3 percent.
The Bruins advanced onto the second round of the race after
gaining a 46-42 victory against Cal, one of two teams that UCLA
swept in the regular season.
“There’s not a lot of games where we feel we can
win,” Bruin head coach Kathy Olivier said after the
Bruins’ victory. “And this was one of those
games.”
Coach Olivier had hoped that the win against Cal on Friday night
would provide a confidence boost for her team when they faced off
against the number 2 ranked Cardinal, a team the Bruins have lost
to by an average margin of 24.5 points this year, Saturday
afternoon. But the less than 24-hour rest in between games had a
damaging effect on the Bruins.
“We were playing with them the first 15 minutes. We just
ran out of gas and a lot of it has to do with the fatigue,”
said Olivier.
That was when the Cardinal went on a 14-0 run to close the first
half. A competitive six-point lead had now mushroomed to a 20-point
margin. After that, the closest the Bruins got was 17 points midway
through the second half.
Gennifer Arranaga continued to be the dominating offensive force
for the Bruins, scoring 16 points in the losing effort. The
5-foot-6 Bruin guard has averaged 17.0 points in the last four
games, all against the Northern California schools.
“It’s been a pleasure to see Gennifer mature over
the course of the season,” assistant coach Theon Carrier
said. “She plays very hard and she works very hard everyday
in practice.
“Not too many players in the Pac-10 can keep up with
her.”
The Bruins conclude their 2001-2002 season with an overall
record of nine wins and 20 losses, including a conference record of
5-15.