UCLA Spoils Senior Day at Mac Court

Saturday, February 25

Eugene, Ore.

3 p.m.

University of Oregon

UCLA

02/26/06 | Women's Basketball

By: GoDucks.com

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) - Lisa Willis had 17 points and 14 rebounds to lead UCLA to a 66-65 victory over Oregon in the regular-season finale at McArthur Court.

Lindsey Pluimer scored 17 points and Nikki Blue had nine points and eight assists for the Bruins (17-10, 12-6 Pac-10), who shot 48 percent from the field.

UCLA's Noelle Quinn added nine points, 11 rebounds and five assists.

“They have the best guards in the Pac-10,” said Oregon senior guard Chelsea Wagner. “I thought we did a good job, but we needed to put more points on the board.”

Senior guard Brandi Davis scored 15 points and Carolyn Ganes had 14 points - all in the second half - for the Ducks (14-14, 5-13), who closed out the regular season on a five-game losing skid to finish in eighth place in the Pac-10.

After playing just two minutes in the first half, Ganes scored nine straight points for Oregon, bringing the Ducks within 49-47 on a 3-pointer with 9:59 to go.

“I got the opportunity to go out, and I got good looks,” Ganes said. “My teammates helped.”

UCLA hit back-to-back 3-pointers and took its largest lead at 59-51 on a Blue layin with 4:28 left.

“We talked about effort and that's what we have control of,” said head coach Bev Smith. “Unfortunately, we just didn't have it for a long enough time.”

Oregon freshman Tamika Nurse had a steal and a bucket, followed by four straight points by Davis to cut the Ducks' deficit to 59-57 with 2:27 left.

Blue answered with a driving layin and Quinn hit a jumper to push UCLA's lead to 63-57.

But Ganes swished in a 3-pointer and Nurse sank a pair of free throws to bring the Ducks within one at 63-63 with 46 seconds to go.

Quinn made one of two free-throw attempts with 22 seconds left, putting the Bruins ahead 64-62.

Still trailing by two, Oregon senior Chelsea Wagner collected a rebound but was called for traveling with 6.6 seconds left.

Oregon had just eight turnovers but was outrebounded 39-29.

Pluimer then sank a pair of free throws to put the Bruins up four.

Davis, a crowd favorite playing in her final home game, hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer for the final margin.

Pluimer had 13 points on 6-for-6 shooting in the first half.

Oregon had only one field goal in the final seven minutes of the first half, a Davis 3-pointer with 1:37 left to tie it at 30.

“I think the difference in the game was they shot the ball a little better than us and also offensive rebounds,” Smith said.

The Ducks, who are the No. 8 seed at next week's Pac-10 tournament in San Jose, Calif., will face No. 9 Arizona on Friday, March 3 at 8:15 p.m. The winner will face No. 1 Stanford the following day at the HP Pavilion.

QUACK TRACKS: SO G Kaela Chapdelaine was the only Duck to start all 28 regular season games this season ... SR G Chelsea Wagner tied her career rebounds mark for the second straight game with seven ... SR G Brandi Davis became the 19^th player in team history to score 1,000 points in a career and now has 1,014.