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Junior guard Noelle Quinn has been named the U.S. Bank Pac-10 Women’s Basketball Player of

There have been many instances in the past three years where junior guard Noelle Quinn has shown how valuable of a player she is to the UCLA women’s basketball team. Her performance in last weekend’s victories over Stanford and California was just her latest display of excellence. On Monday, Quinn was named U.S. Bank Pac-10 player of the week for her 25-point, 10-rebound, four-assist performance against Stanford and her 25-point, 11-rebound, seven-assist game against Cal. “I had a very good weekend, and I’m honored that they recognized me for my performance,” Quinn said. “It was a whole team effort. I’d give it (the award) to my whole team if I could.” The games were a breath of fresh air for Quinn, who struggled mightily in the Bruins’ road trip to the Bay Area one month ago. During that trip, Quinn scored 11 points against Cal and eight points against Stanford, two of her lowest-scoring outputs of the year. Quinn, who has 75 assists and 46 turnovers on the year, had just six assists compared to eight turnovers in that series. And the Bruins lost both games. “I was physically not doing well that weekend, but that’s no excuse,” Quinn said. “On this team, I’m a leader and a scorer and if I don’t play well, my team struggles.” “She knows that she has to do more,” UCLA coach Kathy Olivier said. “It’s hard because you don’t want to try and do too much. She’s about her team and when her teammates are up for the challenge, she rises to the occasion too.” Fortunately for the Bruins, Quinn did everything anyone could have asked for her and more to fit her bill as a team leader last weekend and help the team avenge its earlier losses to the Bay Area schools in two of the most critical games in UCLA’s season. “Everything’s been starting to come together,” Quinn said. “I’ve been on a little bit of a roll. When I play better, our team does better as a whole.”

INSIDE GAME IMPROVES: While the Bruins yet again received strong play this weekend from Quinn and senior guards Nikki Blue and Lisa Willis, the post players had one of their most productive stretches of the season. Junior forward Amanda Livingston had 10 points against Stanford and Cal, freshman center Chinyere Ibekwe had eight points and nine rebounds in a combined 28 minutes of action in both games, and sophomore forward Lindsey Pluimer scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds against Cal on Sunday. “Lindsey was attracting attention, Amanda was attracting attention, and Rey-Rey and all our posts really picked it up this weekend,” Olivier said. “Anytime you have a force inside, it helps.” Against Cal, Pluimer was particularly impressive, scoring a season high in points and taking some of the scoring load off of the Triple Threat. “Lindsey was more assertive,” Olivier said. “It wasn’t like she was sitting back waiting for the game to come to her; she was being very aggressive and it showed with her numbers. In addition to scoring, Pluimer aggressively attacked the offensive glass and pulled down five offensive rebounds. “Offensive boarding definitely helps our team,” Pluimer said. “Every game I go in with mind-set to rebound defensively and offensively, but especially offensively.”

INJURY UPDATE: Willis jammed her thumb during the beginning of practice on Tuesday and sat out the rest of practice to receive treatment. Willis is day-to-day, but will likely play in this weekend’s road trip to Arizona, according to Oliver. Redshirt junior forward Julia Pitts, who is still recovering from knee surgery and did not play against Cal on Sunday, practiced at full speed on Tuesday and will be available against Arizona State on Thursday.