It was a grab bag of hard drives, flailing arms and gritty grapples in the paint, but in the end the UCLA women's basketball team's exhibition game against Vanguard served its purpose, providing the Bruins an opportunity to display their arsenal in an 81-52 win over the Lions. Through it all, redshirt junior forward Atonye Nyingifa proved her mettle as one of UCLA's go-to players this season, bumping and bruising her way to 22 points and 16 rebounds. The veteran Bruin also put her intangibles on display, gobbling up rebounds and bringing the ball up the court on numerous possessions.
If anything, Nyingifa's prowess was a microcosm of a need to interchange roles that coach Cori Close stressed will dictate just how far these Bruins will go this season.
"Our versatility is really hard to match up with," Close said. "We're best when we can defend and create stops, and then attack and get out in transition."
Other encouraging signs in UCLA's debut stemmed from the plays of freshmen Moriah Faulk and Kacy Swain. Faulk's performance in fact was strikingly similar to that of former Bruin guard Darxia Morris. The first-year guard stepped into her shots with the same ease and confidence Morris sustained last year, pouring in 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting, including 3-of-6 from beyond the arc.
"Her jumpers were automatic," Nyingifa said of Faulk. "You give her the ball, and she's going to shoot it, whether there's someone there or not. That was some great confidence she showed tonight."
As for Swain, the freshman from St. Bernard's High School worked in some nifty post moves, scoring on a variety of putbacks and jumpers en route to 17 points and nine rebounds. Provided she keeps it up, Swain figures to play a prominent role during a year in which big bodies will be a premium for the Bruins.
Perhaps the two players who, in their own respective ways, hold the keys to the Bruins' 2011-2012 season are none other than the Gardner sisters.
Sophomore guard Rhema Gardner put to use every inch of her lengthy frame, getting her hands in the passing lanes and sticking to her defensive assignments, with a pair of blocks and some fancy footwork to boot.
"Rhema came out and delivered right off the bat, using her length and making her presence known on both sides of the ball," Close said. "She had never started a college game before, so to watch her step into that new comfort zone with confidence and aggression was great to see."
And while Rebekah Gardner didn't exactly light up the scoring column - she finished the evening with a quiet 11 points on 2-of-13 shooting - the senior guard didn't hesitate to get physical, pulling down 11 rebounds and throwing her weight around in a few heated tussles for loose balls in the second half.
"All of those loose balls and rebounds that Rebekah got in the second half, when her shot wasn't falling, showed to me a step up in maturity," Close said. "A lot of times, when shots aren't falling, a good shooter will let that affect other areas of their games. But that didn't matter tonight; she was going to find other ways to help this team."
The final verdict? Tough to say. As with any typical exhibition game, plays at times ran rampant and rugged.
But for Close and her coaching staff, it was an indication that just maybe, the personnel is in place for the Bruins to keep clawing.
