The UCLA women’s basketball team now has good reason to
believe in unlucky numbers. Wearing Washington’s No. 13
jersey, Giuliana Mendiola is exactly the reason.
Clearly intent on avenging an earlier season loss to the Bruins,
Mendiola led the Washington squad (17-3 overall, 9-2 Pac-10) in the
epitome of a rout on Sunday. In front of a record-breaking crowd of
8,408, UCLA (12-8 overall, 7-4 Pac-10) was swept 111-77.
Mendiola broke Washington’s school record with 43 points
““ only three shy of Washington’s final score when the
Bruins defeated them in Westwood on Jan. 3. She also added 12
rebounds and seven assists, barely missing a triple-double.
“She’s the best player in the Pac-10,”
Washington coach June Daugherty said.
But Mendiola was not the sole player responsible for
Washington’s win. Washington’s starters made the most
of their first five minutes, sinking three-pointer after
three-pointer on their way to a 22-2 run that decided the game.
“We felt prepared but we saw immediately they were on
fire,” senior guard Michelle Greco said. “We were
struggling to get things going offensively and we got in a
slump.”
UCLA was certainly in a slump: The Bruins headed for the locker
rooms at the half down by 23. That wasn’t even the worst of
it, as they would see the margin climb to as many as 36 points
before game’s end.
But this was hardly a case of apathy. Freshman guard Nikki Blue
broke UCLA’s school record in freshman scoring with a
career-best 35 points. Greco, who averages 19.2 points per game and
leads the Pac-10 in scoring, also had an exceptional night
offensively, netting 29 points.
But no other Bruin had more than four points, and the UCLA
defense allowed the Huskies to shoot 63.3 percent from the
field.
The clincher, though, was outside the arc. Washington broke
another record with a 60 percent shooting from three-point
range. UCLA, however, did not hit their first three until 30
minutes into the game, and would only sink one more before the
buzzer.
“It was hard to make a dent in their lead,” Bruin
head coach Kathy Olivier said. “We continued to plug away,
but it was a little out of hand.”
That it was. The game also places the Bruins in a precarious
position for the postseason. With only seven games left, the Bruins
will have to win most, if not all, of their remaining matches to
keep their Pac-10 record worthy of an NCAA tournament berth.
Looking to future matches, Olivier thinks such an outcome is
possible “if we get on a little bit of a roll.”
“We are going to have to fight,” Greco said.
“If we want to get in the tournament, we cannot allow
ourselves to get down. We can’t afford to lose any more games
““ but we know it’s attainable.”