W. basketball falls to Women of Troy, 70-65

Published: Monday, March 6, 1995

Bruins can get no

closer than three

in final seconds

By Hye Kwon

The UCLA women's basketball team had a chance to upset USC on Friday night, but after a couple of costly mistakes down the stretch on the part of the Bruins, the Women of Troy came away with a 70-65 victory.

With 58 seconds remaining on the clock, the Bruins (10-15 overall, 5-11 in Pac-10) pulled within four points after Kisa Hughes converted a layup underneath the basket. UCLA then quickly fouled, sending USC's Audrey Gomez to the charity stripe.

Gomez, the older sister of UCLA signee Erica Gomez, missed the front-end of the one-and-one. But the Women of Troy (17-7, 10-6) came away with the offensive rebound and Gomez was fouled once again at the 39 second mark. The junior point guard sank both of those tries and gave USC a six-point lead.

The Bruins did not capitulate at that point, but rather pulled within three points after Nikki Hilbert sank a trey from the corner. The strategy for the UCLA coaching staff, once again, was to quickly foul, hoping the Women of Troy would miss their free throws. And that's exactly what happened.

UCLA fouled Gomez once again, and she missed once again. But the Women of Troy grabbed the offensive rebound yet another time. Karleen Shields made all four of her free throws from that point to ensure the USC victory.

"Not blocking out at the free throw line at the end of the game, there's no excuse for that," UCLA head coach Kathy Olivier said. "We've been there, we've done that. But we continue to do that."

Coming out of the locker room after halftime, the Bruins were trailing by the score of 39-31. But thanks in large to Aisha Veasley, UCLA pulled within 39-37 just three minutes later. Veasley, who finished the game with four steals and three rebounds, acted as the catalyst to the Bruins.

"She did a great job defensively," Olivier said. "She made things happen every time she came into the game."

For the Women of Troy, Gomez came off the bench and ran the offense to perfection. She finished with 12 points, six assists and three steals.

"Because of Audrey Gomez, we have lost two games to 'SC (this season)," Olivier said. "(Gomez) takes them to another level."

After having a semi-quiet presence in the first half, Tina Thompson finished in her usual stellar fashion, racking up 20 points and 11 rebounds. Thompson also had three blocked shots in the game.

Scoring for the Bruins was led by Hughes who had 16 points. UCLA was also paced by Hilbert who ended up with 14 points and Kellie Bennett who contributed 13 points.