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Valuable reserves

Two Bruin reserves who have been providing some valuable minutes off the bench are sophomore guard Jalina Bradley and junior center Shalada Allen.

Bradley, who started the first 11 games of the season, moved to the bench after two-sport star Whitney Jones joined the team. Although Bradley’s minutes have been cut by an average of 10 minutes per game since then, her scoring and rebounding statistics have barely suffered.

One statistic that has shrunk, however, is the number of turnovers she’s committed per game. In the games she started, Bradley averaged almost one turnover per 11.3 minutes on the court. But since she moved to the bench, she’s averaging only one turnover every 22.2 minutes.

Her dependable play was prevalent during the Bruins’ recent loss to the Ducks. When starting point guard Natalie Nakase sat out for a six-minute stretch in the first half with foul trouble and Bradley came into the game, the Bruins remained neck and neck with the Pac-10 leading Ducks.

Allen, a junior college transfer from Texas, has been averaging a rebound for every three minutes on the floor during conference play, which averages out to more than 13 rebounds per 40 minutes on the floor.

Ms. Durability

Junior guard Michelle Greco, who leads the Pac-10 in scoring with an average of 20.1 points per game, was removed from the first half of the Oregon game after receiving a hard elbow to the head.

Greco, who suffered a series of minor concussions last season, sat down for a minute and returned to play for the remainder of the game.

“Whenever you get hit hard in the head, it takes a minute to clear the cobwebs,”Greco said.

The durable Greco leads the Pac-10 in minutes per game at 35 and an astonishing 38 minutes in conference play.

Struggles continue

There’s no way to steer away from this distinction. Though the Bruins may have held hope that a .500 season was still in reach, their two losses over the weekend to Oregon and Oregon State secured them a losing season and a record below .500 for the first time since the 1996-97 squad went 13-14. With a 3-15 record going into the weekend and only 11 games remaining on their schedule, UCLA remains optimistic, however.

“We’re glad we’re playing at home,” head coach Kathy Olivier said. “Though every game is going to be tough for us, we think we can play with any team in the conference at home.”

Another one bites the dust

A week after Stanford fell out of the top-25 in the AP Poll, the Arizona Wildcats, who suffered a devastating 67-57 loss to Arizona State in their rivalry matchup, also dropped from the AP’s top rankings. The Wildcats, who began the season with an impressive 14-2 record, have now lost three games in a row and are struggling to regain the form that helped them win their first four Pac-10 contests.

The lone Pac-10 school that remains in the top-25 of the latest AP Poll are the conference leading Oregon Ducks, who fell two spots to No. 22. Oregon has held on to their top-25 distinction for 12 consecutive weeks, the best mark under coach Judy Runge, and second only to the 1980-81 squad which remained ranked for 18 consecutive weeks. Arizona State, who now shares the conference lead with the Ducks, led all other Pac-10 schools in votes received with 22, followed by Arizona with 12 and Stanford with six.

Notes compiled by Joshua Mason and Scott Schultz, Daily Bruin Reporters.