Brandi Davis announced to her teammates that she was going to score 30 points before Thursday’s game against UCLA.
Turns out she wasn’t far off.
The 6 foot guard dropped a career-high 28 points as the Ducks beat the Bruins 78-71 at McArthur Court.
The senior connected on 10 of 19 field goal attempts, including 6 of 13 from three-point range.
“Brandi is a real hard worker,” Oregon center Andrea Bills said. “Whenever she comes in and makes plays it get us going.”
Things didn’t start off well for Davis, however. She missed her first six field goal attempts before burying a 15-foot jump shot with three minutes and 13 seconds remaining in the first half. After her initial basket, Davis closed out the half with three consecutive three-pointers.
“As we came into a time out, my teammates just kept telling me to keep shooting it,” Davis said. “I’m really happy with the support I had from my teammates tonight. Even though I was missing some shots, they still had the faith in me to knock them down.”
Davis’ sharp-shooting gave the Ducks (13-6 overall, 6-4 Pacific-10 Conference) the spark they needed to hold off a late Bruin comeback. After Oregon built a 70-60 lead with less than four minutes remaining, UCLA (12-7, 6-4) turned up its defensive pressure with a full-court press. After creating several turnovers, the Bruins cut the Duck lead to four less than a minute later.
UCLA got no closer, however, as Oregon started making better passes down the stretch.
“We’re confident with what we do at the end of games, especially when teams press us,” said Oregon point guard Corrie Mizusawa, who finished with 11 points and nine assists. “We’re an experienced group of girls. We made some mistakes, but (we didn’t let things get out of hand).”
The Ducks also held a huge advantage on the boards — outrebounding the Bruins 50-30. Cathrine Kraayeveld grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds for Oregon, while Eleanor Haring snatched eight.
While Oregon was the better team in the second half, it appeared UCLA was going to take over the game midway through the first. Behind the perimeter shooting of guard Nikki Blue and forward Lisa Willis, the Bruins built a 27-18 lead with seven minutes remaining in the half. Davis caught fire shortly after, however, and the momentum Oregon gained was too much for UCLA to handle.
“I wasn’t just pumping myself up, (I was) getting the bench into it, getting the crowd into it and getting the coaches into it,” Davis said. “I think I even saw Bev (Smith) jump.”
Willis led UCLA with 24 points on 7 of 17 shooting and Blue added 15 points, playing the entire 40 minutes.
Haring and Bills each finished with nine points for Oregon, while Kraayeveld and Kristen Forristall each added eight points.
Davis leads Oregon in UCLA win
Daily Emerald
January 27, 2005
Oregon guard Brandi Davis scored a career-high 28 points against UCLA Thursday.
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