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Women's hoops 'outplayed, outhustled' in loss to UCLA

The No. 16 UA women's basketball team entered its game against No. 14 UCLA last night with the hopes of knocking off the conference favorite by using a high powered offense and an inspired defense.

But, after a 79-68 loss, Arizona coaches and players said their enthusiasm was exactly what was lacking.

"We deserved to lose this game because we did not play well and UCLA definitely outplayed us, outhustled us, and our decision making was not very good," head coach Joan Bonvicini said.

"I don't like questioning people's effort, and that's what I questioned tonight is our players' effort and their intensity to go 100 percent."

Arizona's run at upsetting the Bruins was marred by their 35 percent field goal shooting, including 5-for-23 from behind three point range.

Senior forward Tatum Brown added that playing a highly-touted UCLA squad gave them a case of the jitters, as well.

"Sometimes we get kind of careless with the ball because we're excited, and then we force a turnover," she said. "So I think that turnovers beat us as well as our defense and, of course, they converted on our turnovers. That hurt us pretty bad."

"The thing about Arizona is that they have a good inside game and good outside game and thank goodness, they didn't make as many three point shots as they normally do." UCLA head coach Kathy Olivier said. "I think we did a good job putting a hand in their face and making them rush just a little bit."

Though first half leads flip-flopped several times, the second half was dominated by UCLA, which shot 43.3 percent to Arizona's dismal 33.3 percent from the field.

The Bruins commanded the boards in the second half as well, out-rebounding the Wildcats 27-21.

The Wildcats relinquished their final lead 43-42 with 17:29 remaining in the game.

From that point on, UCLA was led by center Janae Hubbard, forward Maylana Martin and guard Erica Gomez. Hubbard collected 11 of her 12 rebounds in the second half, and Martin and Gomez combined to convert 10 of 15 free throws over the last 1:41.

"They have a good team and a lot of weapons to utilize, but we didn't play very smart defensively," Bonvicini said. "Maylana, Gomez, Janae, they all beat us."

Highlights for the Wildcats came mostly from Brown, who contributed 16 points and 10 rebounds by fighting for nearly every ball that came off the glass.

"I felt that (there was a lack of intensity) in the first half," Brown said. "I like to lead by example at times, so I told myself, either step it up in the second half or get off the court."

Bonvicini agreed.

"Tatum Brown played a very good second half," she said. "Finally we were posting up well, and she was the only post player posting up."

Arizona has relied on solid scoring from its bench players all season, but a combined 12 points from off the bench was the undoing of the Wildcats last night, Bonvicini said.

"I cannot have (starter) Angie Lackey with seven points, and off our bench, we hardly get any points from our posts," she said. "That's ridiculous."

Arizona gets a chance the redeem itself and keep its conference record from hitting the .500 mark when it faces USC at McKale 2 p.m. tomorrow.

"This next game has to be a total commitment; we just need to come out and work hard," Brown said. "Fun time is over, Pac-10's are here. It's a tough loss, but I think that we are going to learn a lot from it."

Bonvicini said this next game is going to reveal a lot about her team.

"(The USC game is) huge," she said. "It's about character, and it's about heart and about how much you want to play for the University of Arizona because I was really disappointed tonight."