UCLA
CSU Bakersfield (1st Round)
Bruins Advance in WNIT with 70-54 Win Over CSU Bakersfield
March 20, 2015 | Women's Basketball
LOS ANGELES – UCLA won its first-ever WNIT game, leading wire-to-wire, for a 70-54 win on Thursday night in Pauley Pavilion.
With the win, the Bruins advance to the second round where they will face San Diego, which defeated Long Beach State tonight, 63-56. The Bruins and the Toreros will square off in San Diego on Sunday, Mar. 22 at 2:00 p.m. PDT.
UCLA came out and put it on the Roadrunners, scoring the game's first 11 points. Tyonnna Outland's three got CSUB on the board at the 14:27 mark. But the Roadrunners never got closer than six points in the game. UCLA led by 36-26 at the break.
CSUB outshot the Bruins in the first half (40.7% to 38.2%) but had 16 turnovers in the opening 20 minutes, leading to 13 points off turnovers for UCLA.
The Bruins opened the second half on a 12-3 run to push the lead to 19 (48-29) with 15:29 to go. Dominique Williams hit just her second three-pointer (on just her third attempt) of the year to give the Bruins their largest lead of the game (51-31) with 14:40 to go.
But the Roadrunners responded with a run of their own, as the visitors scored 16 of the game's next 19 points to cut the deficit to 54-47 with 9:10 to go. But that would be the closest CSUB would get as Jordin Canada scored five of her eight points in the final four minutes to keep the visitors at bay.
UCLA finished shooting 39.1% (25-for-64) while holding CSUB to 28.8% (17-for-59) for the game and a paltry 18.8% (6-for-32) in the second half. UCLA was rattled by the Roadrunners' second-half press, committing 16 turnovers in the final stanza (24 for the game, second-most this season). But the Bruins countered that by hauling in their second-most rebounds of the year to lead 56-34 on the boards.
UCLA received double-double efforts from junior Nirra Fields (26 points, 11 rebounds) and freshman Lajahna Drummer (11 points, 11 rebounds). For Fields, it was her fourth of the season and ninth of her career and it marked Drummer's first of her young career.
Outland scored a game-high 28 points (matching her highest for the third time this season) and added six steals and six rebounds for the Roadrunners.
