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Women's hoops defeats USD Friday, 87-69

ANDREW SCHOLER/Daily Bruin

UCLA guard Erica Gomex played a career-high 34 minutes and recorded seven steals in the Bruins' loss to No. 5 Vanderbilt.

By Emmanuelle Ejercito

In a game where the most valuable player was the entire team, the UCLA

women's basketball team defeated University of San Diego, 87-69.

After their exhibition loss to the Perth Breakers two weeks ago, the

Bruins felt their communication needed improvement. So, Friday afternoon,

UCLA came on the floor screaming and aggressive.

"We built on our mistakes," UCLA head coach Kathy Olivier said. "We made

improvements in areas that we needed improvements in. We talked about

communication, talking on defense."

Although the Bruins enjoyed a height advantage, they were unable to

capitalize on it until the second half, when they exploded with a 21-5

run.

The Toreros also came out aggressive and were able to match well with

the taller Bruins. In fact, USD led for most of the first half. It was not

until the last five minutes that UCLA applied a full court press and began

a run that spilled over into the second half.

"If you have to guard somebody a lot taller, rebounding ... defending

... trying to shoot over them, it makes you really tired," USD head coach

Kathy Marpe said. "I tried to rotate them, but my guards were real tired,

when they put the pressure on, that's when we did those quick

turnovers."

Fatigue did not affect the Bruins, who rotated players regularly and had

only one player, Niki Hilbert, play over 30 minutes. Meanwhile, USD played

only six players in the first half.

In the second half, the Bruins took advantage of their height and went

for the easy shot, setting up center Kisa Hughes in the paint. Hughes

finished with 13 points. The high scorer for the Bruins was Hilbert with 14

but a total of five players scored in the double digits for UCLA. The

Bruins ended the second half with a 56.7 shooting percentage.

"Kisa was making herself more available," Olivier said. "We wanted to

look for the easy shot. We wanted to go hard to the basket and get to the

free throw line."

* * *

On Sunday the Bruins faced fifth-ranked Vanderbilt at the Fleet Center

in Boston at the Reebok Women's Basketball Classic. Vanderbilt prevailed

70-64.

Keeping unranked UCLA in the game was its defense. The Bruins forced 37

turnovers while giving up only 27. Leading the Bruins in steals were

freshman point guard Erica Gomez - who played a career high 34 minutes -

and Hilbert, both with seven steals.

At the break, the Bruins trailed the Commodores 29-27. But poor shooting

hurt UCLA, which only shot 36.4 percent in the second half compared to

Vanderbilt's 59.2 percent.