Bruins Earn First Victory

Michelle Greco scored a career-high 34 points and UCLA’s women’s basketball team finally beat someone Sunday.

The Bruins, who hadn’t come within 15 points of defeating anyone in their 0-6 start, closed the first half with a 16-5 run against Long Beach State (1-5) and won going away, 86-60, before 2,232 at Pauley Pavilion.

Greco, a junior guard, made 12 of 24 shots and was eight for eight from the free-throw line in 36 minutes. And judging from reports from Long Island, N.Y., the Bruins (1-6) are going to need that kind of production from Greco the rest of the season.

Sophomore guard Nicole Kaczmarski, a starter last season, has been out six months because of a foot injury and there is little likelihood she’ll play this season, according to her high school coach, Michael Atkinson.

“She has a very bad tendon injury in her foot and it just hasn’t healed,” he said. “She can’t go side-to-side at all.”

Kaczmarski stayed out of school the fall quarter to undergo treatment near her mother’s home at Sachem, N.Y.

UCLA Coach Kathy Olivier acknowledged the seriousness of Kaczmarski’s injury but found reason for optimism in her team’s performance. “Our focus all week was a solid 40 minutes of basketball, and I think we got that today,” she said.