| Women’s Basketball |
|---|
| Rutgers — 46 |
| UCLA — 86 |
Rutgers scored first, but UCLA made sure that would be the last as Rutgers only managed to score once more in the first quarter. UCLA quickly took control and never looked back. Senior guard Kiki Rice led the Bruins with strong scoring and helped UCLA continue to build a large lead. The Bruins played strong defense and controlled the game from the opening minutes to the final buzzer finishing at 86-46.
No.2 UCLA women’ basketball (22-1, 12-0 Big Ten) played Rutgers (9-14, 1-11 Big Ten) at Pauley Pavilion on National Women in Sports Day. The Bruins set the tone immediately in the first quarter. After Rutgers’ opening three, the Bruins immediately turned it around and flipped the momentum in just seconds. Senior center Lauren Betts got UCLA on the board, Rice followed with a basket to give the Bruins the lead, and senior guard Gabriela Jaquez shot a 3-pointer that started a UCLA scoring run, one Rutgers never recovered from.
Rice found her momentum early, scoring seven points in the first quarter alone, including a three that pushed UCLA ahead 12-3. Rutgers went quiet for a while, missing 12 straight field goals and going more than six minutes without a basket as UCLA stretched the lead to 26-6 by the end of the quarter. Jaquez led the Bruins with 10 points in the opening quarter, while Rutgers managed just two 3-pointers out of 14 basket attempts.
Rutgers briefly found rhythm in the second quarter, but UCLA never let them take the lead. Even as the Scarlet Knights outscored their entire first quarter total just four minutes into the period, the Bruins continued to control the pace. Rutgers ended the half in another drought, failing to score a field goal in the final three minutes as UCLA took a commanding 40-19 lead into halftime.
Any hope of a Rutgers comeback quickly disappeared in the third quarter. Two Scarlet Knights, Faith Blackstone and Zachara Perkins, left the game with injuries in the opening minute. Perkins returned to the game shortly after leaving but Blackstone went to the locker room and never returned. Rice continued to shine to bring her total to 16 points by the end of the quarter. UCLA was still leading 68-27,a 41 point lead for the Bruins.
The fourth quarter really saw the Scarlet Knights step it up and outscore the Bruins but it was too late, there was no way they could catch up at this point. The Bruins had pretty much secured the win, so starters were able to rest and other players such as freshman forward Sienna Betts had the chance to play for a bit. Sienna Betts finished the night with 11 points. She struggled a bit as she missed her first two free throws but she quickly changed things around. “She finishes well at the rim…the last few games she seems more comfortable out there” said Rice when asked about Sienna Bett’s performance tonight.
Towards the end of the game Sienna Betts almost lost control of the ball but managed to find Rice who then passed it to graduate forward Angela Dugalić to shoot. The Bruins largest lead was at 43 points, 80-37 with five minutes left in the game.
Rice led UCLA with 17 points, while Jaquez finished with 14. UCLA’s defense forced long scoring droughts, holding Rutgers to just two field goals in the first quarter and none in the final three minutes of the second.
Head coach Cori Close reflected on tonight’s game saying she was “really proud of the energy that these two (Rice and Jaquez) and Charlisse Ledger-Walker,” had and that “they really led the way in terms of building urgency and trying to play to a standard, even when the score did not reflect that.”
After tonight’s win, the Bruins remain undefeated in conference play and extended their winning streak to 16. Next the Bruins will go on the road to play Michigan on Feb. 8 at 12 p.m. PST.
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Featured Image Photographed by Luana Caravalho/BruinLife
