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Minnesota guard Lindsay Whalen is pressured by UCLA guard Nikki Blue during the Golden Gophers

By Seth Fast Glass

MINNEAPOLIS — It was almost exactly what UCLA women’s basketball coach Kathy Olivier had envisioned.

A raucous crowd at the sold-out Williams Arena in Minneapolis stood witness to an epic battle on the hardwood Sunday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament between seventh-seeded Minnesota and 10th-seeded UCLA. That was expected.

With both teams on the brink of playing their last game of the season, the crowd noise, the intense competition and the rising of the game’s stars at the most critical of moments was already anticipated.

But Olivier was wrong about one thing. It’s her Bruins who are going home after a 92-81 defeat.

Feeding off the home court advantage and the return of one of the best players in the country, guard Lindsay Whalen, from a hand injury, Minnesota proved too tough and too savvy down the stretch for a young and inexperienced UCLA squad.

“We’re still a young team,” said sophomore guard Nikki Blue, who led all scorers and kept UCLA afloat with her 33 points. “Certain situations could have gone differently if we were a little older. We really didn’t know what this game meant.”

“I thought our team did a very good job of keeping its poise in a tough environment,” Olivier said. “The fans were loud, extremely loud.”

While finding a way into the tournament was UCLA’s professed goal all year long, making a quick exit in the first round wasn’t how the team wanted to write its final chapter of this season.

For seniors Gennifer Arranaga, Whitney Jones and Jamila Veasley, the loss was the final chapter in their Bruin careers.

“I’m sad for them,” said a red-eyed Olivier. 

“It sucks,” added sophomore guard Lisa Willis, who finished with 15 points. “We were hoping to get to the Sweet 16. We obviously fell short of that. It’s a heartbreaker.”

Lead changes were many in the nip-and-tuck contest, with the game only being decided in the final two minutes. That’s when Whalen reeled in the reigns and willed her team to victory, reminding her hometown fans and everyone watching why she is considered one of the best players in the country.

With the score tied at 79 and 1:40 remaining, a driving Whalen contorted her body around Veasley in the lane and scored on an extremely difficult reverse lay-up, giving her team the lead once and for all.

Whalen sealed the win by making seven free throws in the final minute of play.

“I knew what needed to be done at the critical stage of the game,” said Whalen, who scored 11 of her team-high 31 points in the final two minutes. “When it comes down to it, you need to be more aggressive, because the aggressive team usually wins.”

And on this afternoon, the more aggressive team was Minnesota. The Golden Gophers (22-8) converted 30 free throws to the Bruins’ 18 from the charity stripe, and the inside play of 6-foot-2 junior center Janel McCarville gave Minnesota an edge that UCLA couldn’t match.

McCarville scored 19 points and pulled down 17 rebounds, most of which came in the second half after a tongue-lashing from Golden Gopher coach Pam Borton at halftime.

“It was 90 percent (coach Borton), 10 percent me,” McCarville said of her second half resurgence. “She gave me an earful at halftime. It hit the right button.”

UCLA (17-13) had its chance to keep the game close in the final minute, but a Willis three-point attempt was off the mark and an ensuing battle for the loose ball between Blue and McCarville resulted in Olivier being assessed a technical foul.

And like that, the Bruins were eliminated from the tournament, but like the scrum between Blue and McCarville, they went down fighting.

For at least one Bruin, there was no reason for hanging heads and shedding tears.

“There’s no crying in the locker room, none of that,” Blue said. “We left it all out on the court, and that’s all we can do. There’s nothing to hold our heads down for.”

And so their season ends, not the way they wanted it to, but the way it had to. The consensus from players and Olivier is that the tournament experience as a whole will only make them stronger and more dangerous come next March. If and when they do come back, they’ll be a different animal.

“I learned what it’s all about,” Blue said. “Last year I promised myself we would never not make the tournament again. And this year, I’m going to try to promise myself that we’ll never lose in the first round again.”

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