No. 23 UCLA Hosts Westmont in Exhibition Game
LOS ANGELES – The No. 23 UCLA women’s basketball team will host its only exhibition game on Sunday, Nov. 2, against Westmont in Pauley Pavilion. Game time is slated for 2:00 p.m. and admission is free!
GAME INFORMATION
Venue: Pauley Pavilion
Arena Capacity: 13,800
Date: Sunday, Nov. 2, 2014
Time: 2:00 p.m. (PT)
Listen Online: www.uclabruins.com
Internet Audio: Dave Marcus (play-by-play)
PARKING INFORMATION
Fans can park in either Lot 4, 7 or 8. To access the north side of Pauley Pavilion, exit Wilshire Blvd. East, turn left on Veteran Blvd., then right on Sunset Blvd. From the south side of Pauley Pavilion, fans are encouraged to park in Lot 8 (west side of Westwood Blvd.). From the north side of Pauley Pavilion, fans can park in either Lot 4 or turn right to Charles E. Young Drive North and enter Lot 7. More information about parking at UCLA can be viewed by clicking here. Please note, Lot 6 has been demolished. For a campus map with parking locations click here.
UCLA MENTOR
Head Coach Cori Close enters her fourth year with the Bruins and has guided UCLA to the second round of the NCAA Tournament and a Pac-12 Tournament runner-up finish in 2012. She sports an overall record of 53-42 (.558).
McDONALD'S ALL-AMERICANS
The UCLA women’s basketball team enters the 2014-15 season with a renewed optimism having signed the program’s first-ever No. 1 recruiting class in the country, featuring three McDonald’s All-Americans (Recee' Caldwell, Jordin Canada and Lajahna Drummer) and five newcomers all ranked in the Top 30 in the country (Kelli Hayesand Monique Billings are the other two standouts in the class). The three incoming McDonald’s selections will join another McDonald’s All-American, junior guard Nirra Fields, giving the Bruins four on the court for the first time in program history.
SEASON OPENER
UCLA opens the 2014-15 season at James Madison on Friday, Nov. 14 at 10:00 a.m. (PT). The Bruins will host 15 regular-season home games after playing an exhibition game in Pauley Pavilion versus Westmont on Nov. 2.
NATIONAL RANKINGS
UCLA is ranked No. 23 in the pre-season AP Top 25 Poll. The Bruins' 2014-15 schedule is loaded with nationally-ranked teams as a total of eight of them are in the pre-season Top 25 with another three programs receiving votes. The Bruins have four on the schedule that are ranked in the Top 10. Connecticut is No. 1, Notre Dame comes in at No. 3, Stanford is currently ranked No. 6 while Texas stands in 9th. Also on the Bruins' schedule is No. 13 North Carolina, No. 15 California, No. 16 Nebraska and No. 20 Oregon State. Three other teams on the Bruins' schedule (Oregon, Arizona State and James Madison) are receiving votes.
ON THE TUBE
The UCLA Bruins will be making a total of 19 television appearances (18 on the Pac-12 Networks and one on ESPN2) during the 2014-15 regular season. That is up one from the 2013-14 season. The Bruins had 14 in 2012-13 and just four during the 2011-12 campaign. Again this year, UCLA will have the distinction of having the first televised conference game when they travel to USC on Dec. 30, 2014 (6:00 p.m.).
PRESEASON PROJECTIONS
UCLA was selected to finish fourth in the Pac-12 conference’s preseason coaches and media polls.
OTHER RANKINGS
The Sporting News ranked UCLA at No. 5 in the country in its preseason college basketball magazine and collegsportsmadness.com has the Bruins in at No. 11 to start the season.
2014-15 OUTLOOK
The Bruins return three starters from a year ago, including junior guard Nirra Fields (17.6 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 2.2 spg) and senior center Luiana Livulo (4.3 ppg, 4.8 rpg, only player to start all 31 games last year).
Two other players combined to start in 27 games, depending on if the Bruins went small or big with their lineup. Sophomore guard Dominique Williams (0.6 ppg, 1.8 rpg, 1.2 apg, 15 starts) and senior center Corinne Costa (6.2 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 2.5 bpg, 12 starts) both made double-digit starts in 2013-14. Costa became UCLA’s all-time career leader in blocks (currently has 116) with two against Washington State on Feb. 2, 2014 and finished second on UCLA's single-season charts with 52 blocks (Necie Thompson, 53 blocks, 36 games, 1980-81).
Livulo spent part of her summer training and playing with Portugal's National Team. She played one game in Italy and two in Portugal. She was second on the team in scoring (12 points) and added two rebounds and an assist in a 65-60 overtime win over Estonia on June 26 in Carcavelos-Lisboa, Portugal in the 2015 Women's EuroBasket 2nd Qualification Round. She also played in the 65-52 loss to Italy in Ragusa, Italy on June 22 and in a 62-55 defeat at the hands of Latvia on June 18 in Caminha, Portugal.
Returning from the sidelines of an injury-plagued 2013-14 season is redshirt sophomore guard Kari Korver (4.7 ppg, 1.5 rpg, 38 three-pointers), the 2012 high school three-point shooting champion, and redshirt junior forward Kacy Swain (3.1 ppg, 3.0 rpg, .816 FT%) a key reserve from the 2012-13 team that won 26 games and made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
UCLA will also return redshirt freshman Paulina Hersler (Malmö, Sweden), who joins recruited freshman walk-on Chrissy Baird (Wheaton, Ill.), to bolster a freshman class already ranked as the nation's best. The Bruins have seven freshmen (out of 14) on the roster for 2014-15.
Hersler spent the summer playing for Sweden's U20 National Team and trained and played for a month with them for the European Championship for Women, Division A. She averaged 25.1 minutes per game in eight outings, finishing third on the team in scoring (9.5 ppg) and second in rebounding (6.8 rpg). She had one double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds in a 56-47 loss to Ukraine on July 11 in Udine, Italy. She scored in double figures in five of the eight games she played, including a high of 14 points in another loss to Ukraine and in a win over Greece.
Also returning for her senior year is guard Madeline Poteet (2.2 ppg, 1.4 rpg, .347 three-point FG%). Poteet (formerly Brooks) formed a Bruin power couple during the off-season, marrying UCLA right-handed pitcher, Cody Poteet, in a ceremony on campus.
After an exhibition game with Westmont on Nov. 2 (2:00 p.m.), the Bruins will open the season with four straight NCAA Tournament teams, starting with two rematches on the road against opponents that took down the Bruins last year. UCLA will open at James Madison (Colonial Athletic Association, 29-6) in Harrisonburg, Va., on Nov. 14 and then head to Chapel Hill, N.C., to face North Carolina (ACC, 27-10) on Nov. 16. JMU lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament a year ago, while the Tar Heels fell at Stanford in the Elite 8. The Bruins will host Texas in their home opener on Nov. 23 on the Pac-12 Networks at 1:00 p.m.
Women’s basketball season tickets are on sale at the UCLA Central Ticket Office (310-UCLA-WIN). For more ticket information, or to buy tickets now, click here.