COLLEGE BASKETBALL 1991-92 : UCLA Eyes Help From Volleyball : Women’s basketball: Williams will join team after she finishes fall sport. Stephens is the leader.

All UCLA Coach Billie Moore wants for Christmas is a happy Natalie Williams.

The 6-foot-1 star of the women’s volleyball team will be counted on by Moore to carry a large part of the load on the UCLA basketball court as well, and when Williams finally arrives with her high-tops, it will be none too soon for the Bruins.

“You’d have to be crazy not to want someone like Natalie in there,” said guard Rehema Stephens, who along with Williams figures to do most of the scoring for the Bruins.

Unfortunately for the basketball team, the Bruins’ volleyball season probably won’t end until Dec. 19 or 21--the dates of the Final Four--and Williams won’t be changing sneakers until after Christmas.

“She’ll have an immediate impact when she does join,” Moore said. “But I want them to win the volleyball championship first. I want her to come here happy.”

Happy or not, Williams will replace 6-4 center Lynn Kamrath, a senior who averaged four points a game last season, and whose career high is 12 points.

Williams averaged more than 14 points and 10 rebounds as a freshman last season. She will give the 5-11 Stephens, the nation’s fifth-leading scorer last season with an average of better than 25 points a game, someone to go to inside. And the two last season were good for a combined average of 18 rebounds.

Until Williams arrives, however, UCLA will rely largely on creating opportunities with its defense, then letting point guard Nicole Anderson run the offense, going mostly to Stephens. Moore is hoping for more involvement from guards DeDe Mossman and Detra Lockhart, and on the inside from 6-1 sophomore Amy Jalewalia.

“This year, that is very important,” Moore said. “(Last season) the young players would kind of stand back and wait for Rehema to do something. And that happened sometimes.”

Stephens, as talented as any guard in the country, has been the workhorse for the Bruins, having led them in scoring since she arrived as a transfer from Colorado for the 1989-90 season.

“A lot of the things I’ve worked hard for are finally paying off individually ,” Stephens said. “But one of my biggest goals is for our team to do better than we have since I’ve been here.”

With a game against Virginia and higher-caliber teams such as Stanford, USC and Washington awaiting the Bruins in Pacific 10 Conference play, it won’t be easy.

“We need to get the balance we want offensively,” said Moore, whose team was 15-13 last season.

“Natalie will solve some of that, but I think we really need to have a third or fourth scorer.”

Moore hopes that scoring will come from a more experienced Anderson, a junior who averaged only nine points last season.

“How she goes, we go,” Moore said.

UCLA Roster

No. Player Pos Yr Hgt 40 Stephanie Allen F Jr 5-11 23 Nicole Anderson G Jr 5-5 35 Camilla Davis G Fr 5-9 42 Meilssa Gische F So 5-9 25 Amy Jalewalia F So 6-1 32 Lynn Kamrath C Sr 6-4 21 Detra Lockhart G So 5-6 30 DeDe Mosman G Sr 5-7 22 Amy Jo Silva F-C Fr 6-3 20 Rehema Stephens G Sr 5-11 11 Marcy Tarabochia G Fr 5-8 44 Gene VanOostveen F-C So 6-3 24 Natalie Williams C So 6-1 42 Nicole Young* F Jr 5-11

Coach: Billie Moore.

*Expected to miss season as medical redshirt

UCLA Schedule

ALL TIMES PACIFIC

Date Opponent Time Nov. 18 Australian All-Stars 7:00 Nov. 22 at Pepperdine 7:30 Dec. 1 Santa Clara 2:00 Dec. 7 UC Santa Barbara 5:15 Dec. 14 at Texas Christian 5:30 Dec. 16 at James Madison 4:30 Dec. 18 Ohio State 7:30 Dec. 28 Virginia* 3:30 Dec. 29 Cal State Northridge* 4:00 Jan. 3 at San Diego State 7:30 Jan. 5 at University of San Diego 2:00 Jan. 10 Oregon 7:00 Jan. 12 Oregon State 2:00 Jan. 16 at California 7:30 Jan. 18 at Stanford 7:30 Jan. 24 at USC 7:30 Jan. 31 Washington 7:00 Feb. 2 Washington State 2:00 Feb. 6 at Arizona State 6:30 Feb. 8 at Arizona 6:00 Feb. 14 Stanford 7:00 Feb. 16 California 2:00 Feb. 22 USC 7:00 Feb. 27 at Washington State 7:30 Feb. 29 at Washington 7:30 Mar. 6 Arizona 7:00 Mar. 8 Arizona State 2:00 Mar. 12 at Oregon State 7:30 Mar. 14 at Oregon 5:00

*UCLA Tournament.