COLLEGE BASKETBAL / NCAA WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT : Cold From the Start, UCLA Stays That Way

BOULDER, Colo. — How lonely a night was it Thursday for UCLA?

The loneliest.

Not only did Southwest Missouri State end the Bruins’ season earlier than many expected, but the Lady Bears did it convincingly, 83-57, to advance to Saturday night’s Midwest Regional final against Mississippi, which defeated Penn State, 75-72, in the other semifinal.

“Obviously we did not play well, said Coach Billie Moore of fifth-seeded UCLA. “But you have to give the opponent credit.”

And to the support it received.

The Coors Events Center was rocking from start to finish, and probably half of the 2,739 came from the Springfield, Mo., area to watch the eighth-seeded Lady Bears play the Bruins.

Most of the rest were merely witness to the rout.

Southwest Missouri State (30-2) took an 8-0 lead and never let up, taking away the Bruin passing lanes almost every time down the floor, poking the ball away when the Bruins did try to pass and flying to the boards.

Its pressure defense was so effective that UCLA failed score until Nicole Anderson made a 13-foot shot 5:12 into the game.

Anderson then made another jumper, but the Lady Bears scored the next 10 points, capped by a three-point shot by guard Melody Howard, which made the score 18-4.

Things did not get any better for the Bruins.

UCLA (21-10) never had a run of more than four points.

“Every time we made a mistake, they took advantage of it,” Moore said. “We had a lot more field-goal attempts (74 to 50), but they took advantage of the shots they had.”

The Lady Bears outshot the Bruins, 58% to 34%.

And though physically smaller (the Lady Bears’ tallest player is 6 feet 1), they outrebounded the Bruins, 49-34. Four Bruins taller than 6 feet played, including 6-4 Lynn Kamrath.

The Lady Bears had 19 steals, the Bruins’ nine.

They won handily despite turning the ball over 28 times to the Bruins’ 22.

Five Lady Bears scored in double figures. Howard had a game-high 18, including three of three from three-point range.

“We went in with the motivation, the thought, that we were going to prove to the nation that it was no fluke that we defeated Iowa,” Coach Cheryl Burnett of Southwest Missouri State said, referring to the No. 10-ranked Lady Bears’ upset of the No. 7 Hawkeyes last week in a second-round game.

The Bruins, on the other hand, went into the game nervous.

“We did a lot of rushing and forcing,” guard Rehema Stephens said. “We were nervous and couldn’t get on track. I missed a ton of shots I normally make.”

Stephens, who played a lackluster freshman year at the University of Colorado before transferring to UCLA, where she became an impact player, said before the game she wanted to “showcase her talents” before the local crowd in what turned out to be her last game.

She scored 13 points on six-for-18 shooting and had four rebounds.

“It’s not the way I wanted to go out,” Stephens said. “It would have been different if we would have played like we can. I didn’t play the type of game I could have . . . but I don’t regret anything I’ve done. I enjoyed it; it’s been a great three years.”

Kamrath and Dede Mosman also played their final games as Bruins.

Natalie Williams, who had hoped this would be the year she would win national championships in volleyball and basketball, will have to wait another year to try again.

The sophomore center, who led the Bruins in scoring with a 21-point average, scored 17 points.