UCLA Earns Breakthrough

Maylana Martin gripped her back in pain as she sat by teammates Nicole Kaczmarski and Erica Gomez.

All three were exhausted--but happy too, their smiles saying it all. UCLA’s women’s basketball team shook off a bugaboo Wednesday night, the rap that the Bruins can’t beat ranked teams.

After losses to Tennessee, Louisiana Tech, Rutgers and Connecticut, UCLA beat 18th-ranked Old Dominion Wednesday night, 82-76, a team that had won five in a row since losing to UConn.

The high-energy game was seen by 3,139 at Pauley Pavilion.

“We needed that one bad,” UCLA Coach Kathy Olivier said afterward. “And we wanted it so bad, I was afraid we’d be trying too hard.”

Gomez wanted it bad, but because she was cooler than most down the stretch, UCLA (6-4) was tougher in the final frantic minutes than Old Dominion. She and Janae Hubbard made four straight free throws, Gomez’s coming with 1:16 left to give the Bruins a 77-73 lead.

So UCLA can leave the non-conference schedule feeling good about a hard-fought, exhausting game in which it roared back from a 12-point deficit with 13:16 to play. Down 56-44, Gomez ignited a 17-0 run that carried UCLA to a 61-56 lead with seven minutes left.

At 59-56, Old Dominion’s French center, Lucienne Berthieu, fouled out when she tumbled on top of Martin, who wrenched her surgically repaired back.

It was a critical play. Old Dominion Coach Wendy Larry, so incensed at the officials’ call, had to be restrained by assistants. She was tagged with a technical and Kaczmarski made both free throws for a 61-56 lead.

“This game was critically important to us,” Martin said afterward. “After Rutgers and UConn, we were down on ourselves--we really needed to beat a ranked team.”

Martin had 13 points, nine rebounds and four steals on a night when she passed Anita Ortegaa and moved into fourth place on the all-time UCLA scoring list with 1,761 points.

Next stop: The Pacific 10 Conference race, beginning Jan. 7 when UCLA plays host to Washington.

Gomez, also with 13 points nine assists, spoke of newfound confidence.

“After the two losses in the East, our confidence was really down,” she said. “But in the last 10 minutes tonight, we really picked it up.”

Kaczmarski was UCLA’s most productive offensive player, contributing 18 points.

Old Dominion (7-2) got back to 61-59, but Kaczmarski made the offensive play of the night to raise UCLA’s margin to four. The freshman guard drove right through Old Dominion’s zone and scored on a soaring layup.

Guard Michelle Greco, who suffered a second slight concussion in the UConn game last week, wasn’t in uniform for the game.