Arizona Perseveres and Defeats UCLA

In order to defeat 10th-ranked Arizona in its Pacific 10 Conference women’s basketball opener Friday night, UCLA needed to stop the Wildcats’ big players offensively.

The Bruins did that early but failed to do so late. As a result, they lost, 82-71, in front of 1,015 at Pauley Pavilion.

Before the game, UCLA Coach Kathy Olivier said her standout sophomore, 6-foot-2 Maylana Martin, had to stay out of foul trouble for the Bruins to win, principally because Martin was assigned to guard Arizona’s best player, 5-11 Adia Barnes.

For a half, that tactic worked.

UCLA led for most of the first half and Barnes and her 6-4 teammate, Marte Alexander, scored only 15 points between them.

The Bruins stayed even until Martin came out with her fourth foul, with 10:29 to go and the score tied, 55-55.

At that point, Arizona guards Felicity Willis and Lisa Griffith began going inside to their big players and Arizona gradually took control.

The Wildcats took the lead for good on two free throws by Mikko Giordano, giving Arizona a 57-55 lead.

“That was an experienced, top-10 team that beat us,” Olivier said.

“After we had to take May [Martin] out, they did what they had to do to beat us--they pounded it inside on us.”

Arizona (7-2), picked to finish second behind Stanford in the conference race in both the coaches’ and media polls, also dominated UCLA (5-5) under the backboards after Martin went out.

UCLA had an 18-17 rebound edge by intermission, but by game’s end Arizona had a 41-33 advantage.

Martin, who finished with nine rebounds, had 17 points in her 33 minutes. Barnes and Alexander had 20 and 24 points, respectively, for the Wildcats.