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The UCLA women’s basketball team just was not meant to bring home a victory over the University of Georgia last Friday night.

They did try – with 30 seconds left, UCLA was only trailing by three points – but they didn’t quite succeed as Georgia was up 91-83 at the buzzer.

The fact that Georgia sophomore Kara Braxton added a career-high 30 points to the board didn’t help the Bruins’ chances.

Nor did the Georgia home crowd of nearly 3,000 fans, eager to see their Bulldogs defeat a Pac-10 school after losses to both Arizona and Arizona State.

Nor did a first half that saw the Bruins (4-2) miss chances to score that they should have made.

“We came out a little flat and missed some easy shots and came down on ourselves,” said UCLA head coach Katy Olivier.

Although a similar situation occurred at Pauley Pavilion last Wednesday against St. Mary’s, the Bruins came back on fire in the second half with freshman guard Nikki Blue scoring an amazing 24 points.

At Georgia, even freshman forward Julia Pitts’ 20-point addition to the scoreboard couldn’t push UCLA ahead.

The younger Bruins seemed again to dominate offensively, as freshman guards Lisa Willis and Blue contributed 12 and 11 points, respectively. All of Willis’ points came from three-pointers, once more an exhibition of one of her strengths.

The older players’ scoring was lower than expected, with senior guard Michelle Greco and junior Gennifer Arranaga adding 12 and 10 points, respectively. Greco entered the game averaging 18.2 points per contest.

“We feed off our old (players) and Greco wasn’t doing what she normally does,” Olivier said. “They mixed it up a lot defensively – they pressed us early and I think that threw off any kind of rhythm we had.”

The Bruin defense has been working on strategy since its game against St. Mary’s on Dec. 3, when they should have had a stronger presence on the court.

“We need to prevent them from getting the ball,” Willis said. “If (Greco) doesn’t get the ball she’ll take herself out of the game.”

The second half the Bruins were stealing more and anticipating rather than reacting, according to Olivier.

“We were more active and took more chances,” said Olivier. “We did the right things.”

The Bruins must be tired from their whirlwind beginning games, because Georgia was their third weekend road trip in three weeks. The previous two weekends found the Bruins playing two-game tournaments, first in Hawaii and last weekend in Las Vegas.

“Georgia seemed to be much more comfortable at home,” Olivier said. “They picked it up a level and played hard – and we kept fighting and stayed together and I’m really proud of the girls for doing that.”

UCLA takes to the road again this week when they play at Pepperdine Saturday at 5 p.m.