UCLA Avoids a Letdown

The UCLA women’s basketball team openly discussed guarding against a letdown. Coach Kathy Olivier broached the subject with her team and said she didn’t feel any need to worry.

Of course, then it almost happened.

Four days after a stunning upset of then No. 4-ranked Texas and three days after entering the national top-25 rankings for the first time since 1999, UCLA got a scare from scrappy Pepperdine but rode a strong start to the second half and won, 74-61, at Pepperdine.

“We worked so hard and put so much effort into that Texas game, that I think there was a little bit of a letdown,” Olivier said. “But our girls realized that this was just as big of a game because if we came in here and didn’t win, that whole Texas effort would have been taken away.”

Pepperdine held UCLA without a field goal for the last six minutes of the first half and trailed, 29-27, at halftime.

Freshman center Lindsey Pluimer then scored 13 of her game-high 22 points in the first 11 minutes of the second half as No. 25 UCLA (4-1) opened a 60-41 lead and cruised from there.

UCLA’s Noelle Quinn had 20 points and eight rebounds and Lisa Willis had 14 points and seven rebounds, but Pluimer’s six-for-seven shooting keyed the Bruin victory.

“I was just trying to help contribute,” Pluimer said. “I knew they were really focusing a lot on Noelle and Lisa and Nikki [Blue] and all them, but they always created and gave me an open look.”

Pepperdine (1-5), which has dressed only eight players for the last four games because of injuries, made a late second-half run but was ultimately done in by shooting 35.3% from the field for the game.

Lauren Wenski had 16 points to pace Pepperdine.