University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
UCLA Hosts Saint Mary's on Sunday in WNIT Quarterfinals
LOS ANGELES – The UCLA women’s basketball team (16-18, 8-10, sixth place in Pac-12) advanced to the quarterfinals of the WNIT with a 74-60 round three win over Northern Colorado on Mar. 26. The Bruins host Saint Mary's (23-10, 13-5 West Coast Conference) on Sunday, March 29 at 2:05 p.m. PDT.
GAME INFORMATION
Venue: Pauley Pavilion
Arena Capacity: 13,800
Date: Sunday, Mar. 29, 2015
Time: 2:05 p.m. (PT)
TV: None
Free Live Stream: www.pac-12.com
Internet Audio: www.uclabruins.com
Talent: Dave Marcus (play-by-play)
UCLA MENTOR
Head Coach Cori Close is in her fourth year with the Bruins after guiding UCLA to the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2013 and a Pac-12 Tournament runner-up finish (2013). She sports an overall record of 69-60 (.535).
SERIES HISTORY
This is the ninth meeting between the Bruins and Saint Mary's with UCLA leading the series 6-2. The Bruins have won the last three meetings and are 4-0 all-time in games in Los Angeles. UCLA won the last meeting, a 76-62 win in the St. John's Holiday Classic on Dec. 15, 2012. Trailing 49-48 midway through the second half, UCLA's Jasmine Dixon sparked a 12-0 burst that lifted UCLA to the victory. She had the first five points of the spurt. Jackie Nared finally ended a five-minute scoring drought for the Gaels, hitting two free throws to close the deficit to 60-51. That's as close as they'd get as Atonye Nyingifa had eight straight points to seal the win. Nyingifa finished with 14 points for the Bruins. Markel Walker had 15 points and 12 rebounds to lead UCLA. Alyssia Brewer added 12 points and 10 rebounds to complete her third consecutive double-double performance. Danielle Mauldin scored a career-high 26 points while Nared added 17 to lead Saint Mary's.
SCOUTING SAINT MARY'S
Saint Mary's is led by Lauren Nicholson with 17.4 ppg. With 557 points this season, she ranks sixth all-time in single-season points scored by a Gael. She will crack the single-season top-5 with her next two points, passing Cheree Tappin who had 558 during the 1988-89 season. Nicholson could move into the single-season top-3 if she scores 15 more points this season. Shannon Mauldin adds 10.9 ppg and had a career-high 32 points in the WNIT first-round win over Hawaii. Mauldin leads the Gaels in steals, assists and blocks, while averaging 5.6 rebounds per game. Making their sixth consecutive postseason appearance, Saint Mary’s is now 9-3 over the last three seasons in the WNIT. The Gaels are coming off a third-round road victory over Sacramento State. SMC is now 10-5 in road games this season.
YOU CAN COUNT ON US
UCLA has had solid bench production all season, outscoring its opponents in 27-of-34 games. Only Sacramento State (33-23), No. 2 Connecticut (30-21), No. 13 Oregon State (17-15), Oregon (17-9), No. 7 Oregon State (20-18), No. 19 Stanford (38-17) and No. 19 Stanford (18-13) had better bench production. The Bruins’ bench averages 21.7 points per game.
YOUNG GUNS
With just under half of the active UCLA players being freshmen, it is expected that the majority of the Bruins’ production this season would be coming from underclassmen. The seven freshmen are receiving 43.5 percent of the team’s available minutes. Currently, the freshmen are grabbing 37.3 percent of the team’s rebounds, handing out 53.4 percent of the assists and scoring 43.0 percent of the points. The freshmen also lead in steals, registering 45.8 percent and in blocks, swatting 43.9 percent. The freshmen average 28.1 points, 15.3 rebounds, 6.5 assists, 4.0 steals and 2.1 blocks per game.
McDONALD'S ALL-AMERICANS
The UCLA women’s basketball team enters the 2014-15 season with a renewed optimism having signed the program’s first-ever No. 1 recruiting class in the country, featuring three McDonald’s All-Americans (Recee' Caldwell, Jordin Canada and Lajahna Drummer) and five newcomers all ranked in the Top 30 in the country (Kelli Hayes and Monique Billings are the other two standouts in the class). The three incoming McDonald’s selections will join another McDonald’s All-American, junior guard Nirra Fields, giving the Bruins four on the court for the first time in program history.
ALL-CONFERENCE HONORS
Junior guard Nirra Fields was named All-Pac-12 for the second straight year. Jordin Canada was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and to the All-Freshman Team while Monique Billings was named to the Pac-12 Honorable Mention All-Freshman Team.
PAC-12 ALL-ACADEMIC HONORS
Redshirt sophomore guard Kari Korver earned second team Pac-12 All-Academic honors while sophomore guard Dominique Williams picked up honorable mention Pac-12 All-Academic accolades in 2015.
ON THE TUBE
The UCLA Bruins will be making a total of 19 television appearances (18 on the Pac-12 Networks and one on ESPN2) during the 2014-15 regular season. That is up one from the 2013-14 season. The Bruins had 14 in 2012-13 and just four during the 2011-12 campaign. Again this year, UCLA will have the distinction of having the first televised conference game when they travel to USC on Dec. 30, 2014 (6:00 p.m.).