UCLA Defeats Washington: Statistical Summary

The quick summary of UCLA's 69-65 victory over the University of Washington is pretty basic: Jasmine Dixon and a strong defensive effort down the stretch led to Washington's demise.

UCLA Defeats Washington, 69-65 - UCLA OFFICIAL ATHLETIC SITE
Seattle, Wash. - UCLA finished off a weekend sweep in Washington, recording a 69-65 win at Washington on Saturday afternoon. The Bruins kept the Huskies scoreless for six and a half minutes late in the game, turning a 52-50 deficit into a 59-52 lead they would not relinquish.

Sophomore Jasmine Dixon achieved a career-high in scoring for the second-straight game, contributing 25 points. She also had a game-high nine rebounds. Junior Doreena Campbell added a season-high 21 points.

However, that's not necessarily the full story.

Dixon and Campbell alone combined for just over 66% of the Bruins' production, Dixon muscling her way into the lane for high percentage shots and Campbell complementing her outstanding performance with a perimeter threat, going 3 of 4 from the three point line. And really it was Dixon alone who carried UCLA in some regard -- with her aggressive drives to the basket loosening up the Huskies' defense, Campbell was able to find opportunities.

Looking at the numbers a familiar story for UW fans is revealed: UCLA dominated the offensive boards by a margin of 16%

What immediately stands out is that UCLA had about the same offensive rebounding margin in both halves, but in the second half, they both increased their offensive rebounding percentage to 50% and shot an effective field goal percentage of 65%. What changed is that their guards were responsible for 3 of their 6 second half offensive rebounds meaning it was much more of a team effort. So even though their turnover margin increased, they were extremely efficient in their use of possessions overall.

The other thing that stands out is their free throw percentage in the second half -- the 1.05 free throw rate indicates that they had more free throw attempts than field goal attempts (21 to 20) in the second half. While Dixon did finish 7-11 from the free throw line for the game, it was Campbell who really turned it up a notch in the second half: all 8 of Campbell's free throw attempts came in the second half.

So the story of this game? UCLA not only out-rebounded the Huskies, but in the second half they increased their shooting performance, did a better job of extending their possessions by getting offensive rebounds, and managed to find high percentage scoring opportunities from the free throw line as well as increasing their 2 point percentage from 42.11% to 62.50% in the second half.

Neither team played an outstanding game, but UCLA got this win by rebounding from a slow first half with a very, very efficient second half effort.