Former Muir Mustang Darxia Morris(UCLA) defends the basket from Cal's Rachelle Federico (3)
By Tony Solorzano
(Los Angeles) – Former Muir Mustang Darxia Morris helped lead the UCLA Bruins into the finals of the Pacific Life PAC-10 Basketball Tournament Friday afternoon by beating their “big sisters” from Cal, 63-50, at Staples Center.
The game featured a matchup of former Mustang teammates Morris and Eliza Pierre as the Bruins (27-3) tied the 1977-78 team for the second-highest wins in a season with 27. Bruins head coach Nikki Caldwell praised the effort of her players throughout the season.
“I’m excited for this team, I’m excited that they’ve put themselves in a position to play for a Pac-10 Championship,” Caldwell said after the victory. “I thought tonight, for the most part, the team made the choice to elevate their play.”
The Bruins took control of the game early, opening with an 11-1 run before the Golden Bears got a field goal on a layup by Afure Jemerigbe at 14:48 left in the half. The Bruins would keep a double digit lead throughout the remainder of the half. Jemerigbe and DeNesha Stallworth scored the bulk of Cal’s points in the half, each landing nine.
The Bruins continued the onslaught in the second as they started an 11-2 run in the first three and a half minutes. Defensively, the Bruins held the Bears to just 37.5 % shooting from the floor. Cal managed to go on a 10-4 run in the last four and a half minutes of the game to outscore the Bruins in the half 27-26, but it was too little too late for Cal as time expired.
“For us, I thought we had a really good two games coming in. Today, I’m just disappointed with our effort and just trying to get our team to compete,” said Cal head coach Joanne Boyle. “We struggled on the boards, we struggled to make lay-ups. I mean our confidence was shook.”
The Bruins will meet the Cardinal Saturday morning in the first of two title games at Staples.
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