ReportWire

Tag: ucla sports

  • No. 2 UCLA women crush Rutgers for 16th straight win

    LOS ANGELES — It wasn’t much of a tune-up for the showdown that looms this weekend, but there’s little the UCLA women’s basketball team can do about that these days.

    Kiki Rice had 17 points and seven rebounds, and the second-ranked Bruins overwhelmed another overmatched opponent, routing Rutgers, 86-46, on Wednesday night at Pauley Pavilion for their 16th consecutive victory.

    UCLA (22-1 overall, 12-0 Big Ten), which plays at No. 8 Michigan (20-3, 11-1) on Sunday, has been blowing out opponents by an average of 25-30 points. The Bruins’ last loss came on Nov. 26 against then-No. 4 Texas.

    Gabriela Jaquez added 14 points. Lauren Betts had 11 points on 5-of-5 shooting in 14 minutes, her fewest of the season, for the Bruins.

    The blowout was on from the opening tip. The Bruins’ defense limited the Scarlet Knights (9-14, 1-11) to two 3-pointers in the first quarter, when UCLA led 26-6 after running off 16 straight points.

    Rutgers managed to outscore the Bruins 14-13 in the second but still trailed 40-19 at halftime.

    UCLA dominated the third, outscoring the Scarlet Knights 28-8 for a 68-27 lead while holding them to just three baskets, including back-to-back 3-pointers by Lauryn Swann. Betts scored seven of their first 12 points in the quarter before sitting down for good.

    There was a Betts on the floor in the fourth: Lauren’s younger sister, Sienna. She scored nine of her 11 points in the period.

    Lena Bilic’s 3-pointer gave UCLA its largest lead (43 points) in the fourth.

    Swann led Rutgers with 14 points. The Scarlet Knights committed 18 turnovers that led to 25 points for the Bruins. UCLA controlled the boards 41-18 and owned a 44-14 scoring advantage in the paint.

    UP NEXT

    UCLA visits No. 8 Michigan on Sunday at noon PT in a showdown between the Big Ten’s top two teams.

    The Associated Press

    Source link

  • Swanson: Will anyone challenge UCLA women’s basketball? Certainly not Maryland

1 of 8

UCLA forward Angela Dugalić, left, and UCLA guard Gianna Kneepkens, box out Maryland guard Oluchi Okananwa (7) on the free throw line during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jayne Kamin-Oncea)

Expand

LOS ANGELES – Gotta confess, I was rooting for Maryland.

Not to beat UCLA, no. But to keep it close, Sunday afternoon. To present some sort of a challenge. A little thrill.

I was hoping the No. 12 Terrapins might provide some semblance of suspense for the 8,721 fans who spent their afternoon at Pauley Pavilion, watching the No. 3 Bruins women’s basketball team wear down the guests in another successful yawner, 97-67.

The Bruins went into halftime with 10 turnovers and still had 47 points and a 12-point lead. The inevitable result was right on par with the 29.7-point differential UCLA was winning with entering play.

That’s why I was pulling for what was, on paper, UCLA’s most allegedly daunting Big Ten test to actually be a test – for UCLA’s own sake – and not another predictable outcome for which the Bruins came prepared with all the answers.

But Maryland wasn’t up for that. Now 17-3 this season, the Terps were no match for UCLA, which won its 11th consecutive to improve to 17-1, 7-0 in the Big Ten. The Bruins’ only loss was to No. 4 Texas – almost a favor, as a most-valuable early-season point of motivation.

Since then, though? The Bruins have been obliterating everyone they’ve faced. Because they’re that much better than everyone they’ve faced.

Talented and balanced. Selfless and in sync. Loaded with future WNBA draft picks. Bought in, locked in, laser-focused – fresh off a Final Four run and, with more experience and a couple significant upgrades, wanting better than for this season’s foray to stop again in the national semifinal.

UCLA is one of the nation’s top scoring teams (86.4) and one of its better defensive squads, too (56.7). The Bruins have the nation’s third-best assist-to-turnover ratio. They’re out-rebounding opponents by almost 16 boards per game, second-best nationally.

“This is another Final Four team,” Maryland coach Brenda Frese said. “With the opportunity to go win a national championship. They have been very intentional this year; they have the right chemistry. They’re gonna be right there. This is a national contender.”

The Bruins have arrived. Firmly among the upper crust of women’s basketball. Right there with perennial powers No. 1 Connecticut and No. 2 South Carolina, with regular contenders LSU and Texas, ranked Nos. 4 and 6 this past week.

It’s just that UConn, say, has decades of experience playing from the front. South Carolina and some of these other traditionally tip-top-tier teams have for years now dialed in a formula for staying in the moment while they annihilate opponents by 30 points or 35 or 38 or 44, as they are, while also playing for March.

This isn’t, however, regularly chartered territory for a UCLA program that’s steadily ascended to get here.

And the next time they face a foe that’s truly formidable, it will be in a game with supremely high stakes, probably deep into the NCAA Tournament. And so I worry about how the Bruins will stay sharp for when they run into their fellow buzzsaws.

Their conference isn’t helping. It might boast eight ranked teams, but as far as the Bruins are concerned, it’s the Big Ten in name only: There are 18 teams in the league, for starters, and compared to UCLA, this season they’re all too small, in basketball trash-talk parlance.

Across town, rival USC is young and floundering without star guard JuJu Watkins, out for the season recovering from a torn ACL. And any other conference opponent who was supposed to issue a challenge – ahem, Maryland – has failed.

So, yes, the Terrapins, with five freshmen in their rotation, will learn plenty from the loss: “When we face this again, we’re going to be more prepared for it,” senior guard Saylor Poffenbarger said. “This is only going to prepare [us] for the games in March that are really important.”

But what about the Bruins? Who’s preparing them? Or, who beside Close and her staff: “That,” she said, “is my largest responsibility this year.”

And, she said, “honestly, it’s exhausting. I have to just get myself ready [to get on them about] every little thing. I’m just on ’em, on ’em, on ’em! But I know that I can do that and do that consistently because I know what they really want.”

That’s to win a national championship, of course.

And if the Bruins aren’t going to get mettle-testing help from their opponents, if no one is going to force them to have to finish off a close game, they’re learning that preparation for those pressure-packed moments will have to come from within.

“It’s something we talk about every day,” said savvy senior point guard Charlisse Leger-Walker, who finished with 17 points, nine rebounds and eight assists Sunday.

“When you are part of such a great team, it can be easy to be complacent. It can be easy to come in and not fight for every possession, to not fight for your stance on defense when you’re just going through the motions.

“Our coaches do a really good job of holding the standard in that way, and also my teammates. We’re a veteran group, we have a lot of experience, a lot of leadership and when we feel like things are starting to slip in training, we have one through five people ready to say something about it.”

Maybe that’s what it will take, for them to be their own hardest critics – in practice, and at practice, which is what UCLA’s games have become: Reps for the real thing.

Mirjam Swanson

Source link

  • Sienna Betts makes her UCLA debut in rout of Cal Poly

    LOS ANGELES — Tuesday night was one to picture, frame, and remember in the Betts household.

    Lauren Betts almost single-handedly took down Cal Poly in a 115-28 shellacking at the hands of No. 4 UCLA at Pauley Pavilion, the senior center recording 20 points and 10 rebounds, one of five Bruins to score in double figures. UCLA was the clear favorite Tuesday – loud 64½-point favorites, in fact – but the memory to savor arrived with 4:14 remaining in the first quarter.

    The long wait was over. Freshman forward Sienna Betts – the No. 2 recruit in the class of 2025 according to ESPN’s 2025 SportsCenter NEXT 100 – checked in alongside her older sister to make her college debut. Sienna Betts and Lauren Betts; three years apart, but now together on the Nell and John Wooden Court, becoming the first siblings to play at the same time for the Bruins since Rebekah Gardner and Rhema Gardner from 2010-2012.

    Sienna Betts, who has represented the United States multiple times on the youth international circuit, winning two gold medals in FIBA events, suffered a lower left-leg injury during a mid-October preseason scrimmage against UC Riverside. A month and a half later, after being cleared for practice last week, Sienna Betts made her mark with her first positive recorded statistic.

    Drawing a double-team in the post, Sienna Betts, returning from a lower-left leg injury, found Lauren Betts on the opposite side of the key, where the reigning Naismith Defensive Player of the Year deposited the ball into the basket with 6:23 left in the second quarter to give UCLA a 38-16 lead. The moment, ironic given how often the elder sister is double- or triple-teamed in the paint, marked Sienna Betts’ first assist and became the second converted shot of a 27-0 run to bring the Bruins to a 44-point halftime lead.

    “Sienna is an elite passer,” Coach Cori Close said. “Her and Lauren have an uncanny ability to know how and when they need to find each other.”

    When it came to Sienna Betts’ first points, sinking one of two free throws (UCLA’s 39th point), it was Lauren Betts who fed her the ball before drawing contact. Sienna Betts finished with five points and two assists across 10 minutes, her first-career basket coming on a fadeaway mid-range look to give the Bruins (10-1 overall, 1-0 Big Ten) an 80-point lead (101-21) in the fourth quarter.

    “I just wanted her to just have some joy, to just get her feet wet,” Close said. “She just needed to get the experience today, and I just wanted her to sort of take the pressure off and take a deep breath and try to enjoy it.

    Close added that she wanted Sienna Betts to give herself some grace as the transition from high school through her injury and now playing, continues in the games ahead.

    Yes, there were some clunky plays – such as when the 6-foot-4 forward dribbled and pivoted her way into multiple tie-ups for jump balls. But the space Sienna Betts created on the floor alongside Lauren Betts became paramount as Cal Poly chucked up shot after shot, often away from the paint as the Bruins’ size turned too substantial to play through. Cal Poly (2-8, 0-2 Big West) finished with just 12 points in the paint, shooting 27.5% from the field overall.

    “It wasn’t going to be perfect,” Close said after the game. “I could tell she was playing with nerves, but I am so excited about what she brings to our team.”

    The wait was worth it for both sisters, as an early moment said it all.

    When senior guard Gabriela Jaquez earned a trip to the free-throw line with 4:04 in the first quarter, the siblings were lined up across from each other. They chatted – what was said between the sisters was unknown – but Sienna Betts and Lauren Betts shared smirks as Jaquez let her shots fly.

    “I was just so happy to be on the court with her,” Lauren Betts said. “I know that this process hasn’t been easy, but to just have that moment with her, this is something that we’ve grown up just dreaming about.”

    Dec. 16, a day on which UCLA won by its largest point differential (87) since December 1976, its widest margin of victory in the NCAA era, proved to be a day they can always look back on.

    BY THE NUMBERS

    Senior guard Kiki Rice led all scorers with 23 points, eight rebounds and four assists, while graduate student guard Gianna Kneepkens shot 4 for 7 from 3-point range on her way to 19 points. … After trailing 25-13 after one quarter, Cal Poly was outscored 35-3, 31-5 and 24-7 in the final three quarters.

    Benjamin Royer

    Source link

  • No. 3 UCLA women rout Duke without Lauren Betts

    1 of 5

    Duke forward Toby Fournier (35) knocks the ball away from UCLA forward Gabriela Jaquez (11) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the Players Era tournament in Las Vegas, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

    Expand

    LAS VEGAS — Gabriela Jaquez scored 23 points and No. 3 UCLA defeated Duke 89-59 on Thursday night in the third-place game of the women’s Players Era Championship.

    Handed their first loss this season the night before, 76-65 by Texas, the Bruins came out red-hot even without star center Lauren Betts, who injured her left arm Wednesday.

    UCLA (7-1) led 30-7 after shooting 60% (12 of 20) from the field in the first quarter, including 5 for 7 on 3-pointers. The Bruins also did a good job at the defensive end, forcing the Blue Devils (3-5) to commit six turnovers.

    The Bruins shot 46.9% in the first half and took a 43-25 lead into halftime. Duke was 9 of 32 (28.1%) from the floor in the first 20 minutes.

    Five players scored in double figures for UCLA. Charlisse Leger-Walker finished with 20 points, six assists and five rebounds. Kiki Rice had 17 points and six rebounds. Gianna Kneepkens added 13 points, six rebounds and six assists, and Angela Dugalic had 12 points and eight boards.

    UCLA shot a season-high 59.1% from 3-point range, hitting 13 of 22 from beyond the arc.

    The Blue Devils were led by Ashlon Jackson, who had 18 points. Toby Fournier posted her second double-double of the season with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Delaney Thomas scored 10.

    Duke went 22 of 65 from the floor (33.8%) in its second-worst shooting performance this season.

    No. 4 Texas edged No. 2 South Carolina 66-64 in the championship game earlier Thursday.

    Up next

    UCLA: Will host No. 14 Tennessee on Sunday.

    The Associated Press

    Source link

  • No. 3 UCLA women flex their depth, top San Diego State in season opener

    ANAHEIM — It took a moment to settle down the first-game energy at the Honda Center.

    But once the UCLA women’s basketball team found its footing, brushing aside its four turnovers in the first quarter, there was no question as to why many believe the Bruins can return to the Final Four – or push for more – this season.

    Third-ranked UCLA (1-0) could be special if each cog in the Bruins’ machine churns a little faster and more efficiently than it did Monday night in a comfortable, yet not entirely dominant, 77-53 victory over San Diego State in the season opener for both teams, billed as the Orange County Hoops Classic.

    Senior center Lauren Betts battled double-teams to finished with a game-high 21 points (11 in the first half) on 9-of-12 shooting. Gabriela Jaquez, an X-Factor senior guard, grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds (four of which were offensive).

    Kiki Rice may have unexpectedly started the game on the bench – likely in favor of senior forward Angela Dugalić – but when the senior guard entered to sink a 3-pointer to end the Bruins’ 0-for-10 run from behind the arc to begin the game, it was proof of how deep they could be.

    Team-wide, UCLA recorded nine blocked shots and five steals while shooting 48.5% from the field, compared to SDSU’s 33.9%. They outrebounded the Aztecs 49-25.

    The Bruins’ depth – the depth that UCLA coach Cori Close (entering her 15th season) referred to during the preseason as a team of players who could star for any team in the country, but would also need to be patient for playing time and to make their impact – was on full display.

    Gianna Kneepkens showcased her highly advertised length and tenacity as a defender in her first game as a Bruin.

    The Utah transfer began the contest with a lay-in on an assist from Charlisse Leger-Walker –  the Washington State transfer who sat out her first season in Westwood while recovering from a torn ACL – to make it 2-0, and later in the second quarter blocked a 3-point attempt from San Diego State guard/forward Sofia Kelmeni to deflect the ball into the path of Rice.

    Rice, entering her fourth year in Westwood – along with Betts, a member of the preseason All-Big Ten team – shuffled the ball right back down to Kneepkens, driving down the court with long 6-foot strides, who converted a layup to to give the Bruins a 24-13 lead.

    Leger-Walker, whom Close said last week lowers the pulse of the team while on the court, recorded a team-high 31-plus score across 24 minutes.

    Manning the point guard spot for the majority of the game, the sixth-year Kiwi guard’s return to action, 650 days after tearing her ACL, was smooth sailing and capped by a reverse layup that stalled a 16-12 scoring stretch for the Aztecs from end of the third quarter into the fourth.

    UCLA held SDSU scoreless for exactly five minutes in the third quarter, a run of high-effort intensity from Jaquez sparking a 16-0 run. Need an offensive rebound? Jaquez boxed her way out for a second-chance bucket to make it 44-24.

    Later in the period, the Camarillo native – and brother of Miami Heat forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. – stripped the Aztecs (0-1) for back-to-back steals, leading to a layup and 3-pointer of her own to make it 53-24.

    Close had glowed over Jaquez during her media availability a week ago, and for good reason as she recorded 15 points, 11 rebounds and five assists on Monday – UCLA’s first double-double of the season.

    The Bruins were without touted freshman Sienna Betts, younger sister of Lauren, and Timea Gardiner, the team’s leading 3-point shooter last season who has a knee injury. Betts hurt her lower left leg in a scrimmage.

    Six of UCLA’s first eight games will be played at neutral sites, including two visits to Las Vegas in a three-week span.

    Kaelyn Hamilton scored 11 points, and Nat Martinez and Nala Williams had 10 each for the Aztecs, who shot 10 for 25 from 3-point range.

    More to come on this story.

    Benjamin Royer

    Source link

  • Alexander: It’s a long, hard road back for UCLA football

    Alexander: It’s a long, hard road back for UCLA football

    PASADENA – Do you get the sense that there are times when UCLA’s athletic administrators ask each other, “What on earth did we get ourselves into?”

    Maybe that moment actually arrived Saturday night at the Rose Bowl.

    Rebuilds are hard. Rebuilds when embarking on a transition to another, seemingly more rugged conference, can be excruciating. And UCLA football is not only in a rebuild, but it may have to hit bottom before starting upward.

    Let’s see: The Bruins began the DeShaun Foster era by barely beating Hawaii, getting routed by new conference foe Indiana – which is, incidentally, now 5-0 and shares the Big Ten lead with Michigan at 2-0 –and incurring one of those valiant, gutty lil’ Bruin-type losses at Louisiana State, against a team that’s now 4-1 and ranked 14th.

    Saturday night they faced No. 8 Oregon, an old/new conference foe, and the Bruins’ first Big Ten After Dark experience went pretty much as expected. The Ducks were favored over UCLA by 25½, had a 28-3 lead with 2:25 before halftime and cruised from there to a methodical 34-13 victory. Big Ten, Pac-12, what’s the difference?

    Worse, the fans voted with their feet Saturday night. Large numbers of fans had lost interest in UCLA football under Chip Kelly, and the program had enjoyed an early resurgence of interest under Foster. But the huge tarps still cover six large sections of seats at each end of the Rose Bowl. Saturday night’s attendance was announced as 43,051, and most of the uncovered seats were at least full at the beginning of the night.

    But by the time the second half began more than half of those seats had been vacated. The new student seats, the standing safe sections located behind the visitor’s bench that were supposed to provide the Bruins a home field edge, were full at the start – for the first home game since classes resumed – but largely empty by the fourth quarter.

    And how many of those fans walked away muttering “Same old Bruins?”

    Quarterback Ethan Garbers threw for only 118 yards, had two interceptions and four sacks, and came out with a little more than nine minutes to play after taking a hard hit and sitting up holding the back of his head.

    “I saw him in the locker room after the game, and I told him that as the leader of the offensive line, we need to figure this out,” guard Josh Carlin said. “We need to keep him up. We failed on that, miserably. And we got to start taking pride and not let him get hurt and not let him get touched so he can operate this offense … We just need to continue to get better and, figure out, as soon as possible what we need to do to protect Garbs.”

    While the Bruins offensive line couldn’t protect its quarterback, the Bruins’ defense couldn’t get to the other guys’ quarterback. Dillon Gabriel, the latest Ducks’ transfer quarterback – or, if you will, hired gun – threw for 280 yards and three touchdowns, including a 52-yard scoring strike to Taz Johnson to make it 25-3 in the second quarter.

    Oregon outgained UCLA 433-172, and that’s a pretty accurate picture of the evening.

    Will it get better? Not for a while. Next week UCLA (1-3, 0-2 in conference) plays at No. 9 Penn State (4-0, 1-0) in State College, Pa. The week after, Minnesota (2-3, 0-2) comes to the Rose Bowl, and that could be the Bruins’ best shot at a victory the rest of the way. From there, they play at Rutgers (4-0, 1-0), at Nebraska (4-1, 1-1), at home against Iowa (3-1, 1-0), at Washington (3-2, 1-1), and then No. 13 USC (3-1, 1-1) and Fresno State (3-2, 1-1) in the Rose Bowl. By the time the Bulldogs from the Mountain West (and soon the reconstituted Pac-12) get to Pasadena, these Bruins may be throughly beaten down.

    Just imagine if they’d had Michigan or Ohio State on their initial Big Ten schedule.

    Right now Foster’s biggest chore may be to keep his players believing that times will get better. The most dynamic Bruins plays of the night were one that counted and one that didn’t. Bryan Addison returned an interception 94 yards for a touchdown right before halftime to cut Oregon’s lead to 28-10, while Oluwafemi Oladejo’s 72-yard runback of a fumble recovery early in the fourth quarter was wiped out when Kain Medrano was penalized for a horse collar tackle.

    Three plays later, Gabriel threw his third touchdown pass of the night, and his second to Johnson.

    “We’re gonna learn from these losses,” Foster said. “I know I see it. I know ya’ll see it. Some of you choose not to, but they’re improving. We’re just going to continue to improve, and to work hard … I mean, they should be down. Nobody should be excited about what happened. The fact that they’re still out there playing, when (the score’s) a little bit lopsided and they’re still out there playing hard, that just shows their character. We got some good dudes.

    “Eventually this is gonna turn around.”

    But it’s going to take a while.

    jalexander@scng.com

    Jim Alexander

    Source link

  • UCLA women’s water polo completes perfect season, wins national title

    UCLA women’s water polo completes perfect season, wins national title

    Top-seeded UCLA captured its eighth NCAA women’s water polo championship and the 12th national championship in program history with a 7-4 win over No. 3 Cal on Sunday night at Spieker Aquatics Complex.

    Not only did the Bruins win the title, they did it with perfection — finishing the season with a 26-0 record.

    UCLA, which improved to 65-14 all-time against the Golden Bears, completed just the third undefeated season in school history (the 2005 and 2008 teams accomplished the feat with 33-0 records). Only four other teams have had perfect runs to an NCAA championship, including USC, which did it twice (2004 and 2016).

    Freshmen starred for UCLA on Sunday, with Panni Szegedi scoring three goals. Fellow first-year standout Lauren Steele got the start in the cage, recording 17 saves while allowing four goals — one in each quarter.

    Also scoring for the Bruins were freshman Natasha Kieckhafer, senior Anneliese Miller and sophomores Genoa Rossi and Taylor Smith.

    The Golden Bears (19-7) struck first, but the Bruins tied it up with 15 seconds left in the first quarter on a tally from Miller.

    The Bruins took their first lead on Kieckhafer’s goal at 4:59 of the second quarter. Cal’s Rozanne Voorvelt scored to even the score at 3:31, with the teams going into intermission tied at 2-2.

    The second half was all UCLA.

    After Rossi and  Cal’s Maddie DeMattia traded goals, Szegedi put the Bruins ahead for good 4-3 late in the third quarter.

    Szegedi scored on a power play to open the fourth quarter to make it 4-2. Another power-play goal, from Smith, put UCLA up 5-2.

    De Mattia pulled Cal with two with 32 seconds left, but Szegedi completed the hat trick into an empty net seconds later to seal the title.

    Staff And Wire Reports

    Source link

  • Swanson: UCLA and LSU put on a show worth talking about

    Swanson: UCLA and LSU put on a show worth talking about

    ALBANY, N.Y. — What’s your opinion of Kim Mulkey? I bet you have one.

    And it might not be favorable. Shoot, odds are it isn’t. But odds are you know who she is.

    You can’t miss her; she’s the sequined-out lady on the sideline, though rarely just toeing the line. And she’s been in the game for decades; she went 130-6 as a Louisiana Tech player and reached the Final Four every year before going on to become coach, since becoming the only person to lead two programs to national titles, including last season, when she did it with these LSU Tigers.

    On Saturday, she coached a Sweet 16 game against No. 2 seed UCLA. Her third-seeded Tigers out-executed the Bruins down the stretch to win 78-69 in a thrilling opening act at MVP Arena, where most of the sold-out crowd was there to see Caitlin Clark and Iowa knock out Colorado 89-68 afterward.

    That sets up a rematch. The rematch. A sequel of last season’s NCAA women’s basketball championship game. It drew a record 9.9 million viewers and was, as far as I can think, the biggest women’s sports moment in America since the U.S. women’s national soccer team won the 1999 World Cup at the Rose Bowl on Brandi Chastain’s penalty kick.

    Last season’s title game was so riveting, so rousing, so needing to be debated that its ripple effects gave women’s basketball in L.A. a boost. It was like a brilliant bounce pass to JuJu Watkins and her Elite Eight-bound USC squad and to Cori Close and her talented Bruins, too.

    Those teams did their own heavy lifting, to be certain, upholding their part of the bargain by going 26-5 and 25-6, respectively, USC winning the Pac-12 title and UCLA spending the season in the top 10 nationally.

    Their head-to-head games in L.A. drew a record 10,657 at Galen Center and a women’s record 13,659 fans at Pauley Pavilion in some part because of the groundwork laid by Iowa and LSU – women’s basketball is a thing!

    And now, with a couple more Pac-12 schools out of the way, LSU and Iowa are going to tango again Monday in an Elite Eight matchup that feels a lot like it should be a Final Four matchup – much like how UCLA’s entanglement with LSU also felt like it coulda been.

    Like it woulda definitely been elite Elite Eight theater.

    And like it probably shoulda gone UCLA’s way, if not for a pivotal sequence of events down the stretch, when the Bruins’ 67-64 lead with 2:46 to play unraveled as they missed layups and free throws and LSU made its layups and free throws.

    “I’m gonna say we’re the better team, we just didn’t show up today,” said center Lauren Betts, one of six sophomores on what remains a promising if unfulfilled Bruins team that will be better for this experience, as much as it stinks and stings.

    Despite UCLA’s consistently high billing all season, it was placed in the NCAA Tournament’s version of the “Group of Death.” They’d had to travel farthest to get here. Plus their plane was delayed en route, and they then had the earliest practice time Thursday, at what was, for their West Coast clocks, 4 a.m.

    No excuses, Close said.

    “We had this under our control,” she said. “We could have not been in Albany, but we lost some (regular-season) games we shouldn’t have.”

    UCLA came into the season ranked No. 4, got as high as No. 2 and finished the regular season at No. 6 – before bowing out in the Sweet 16 for the fifth time in Close’s 13-year UCLA tenure, when the Bruins have reached the Elite Eight only in 2018.

    “I’m the head coach. I’m responsible,” she said. “They’re young; I need to lead them in to situations where they have the confidence so we execute in those scenarios.”

    As Close dutifully fell on her sword, Mulkey sharpened hers, turning another newspaper story into the story postgame.

    A couple hours before tipoff, the Washington Post published the nearly 7,000-word piece that had been hotly anticipated since Mulkey brought attention to it during a recent news conference, predicting what turned out to be an in-depth and balanced profile would be a hit piece.

    This time, she ripped a Los Angeles Times article that portrayed her team’s matchup against UCLA as a “reckoning” between good versus evil, saying it struck her as “sexist,” “awful” and “wrong” — and taking issue, among other things, with a gendered characterization of the women on her team being “dirty debutantes” and UCLA’s as more “milk and cookies.”

    She was right. They’re all actually hoopers. Competitors. Crazy-tough kids.

    Close could tell you. She took to social media and apologized for re-posting the story, saying she made a mistake and that she only wants to “be a person that is about growing our game and building up the people in it.”

    The Bruins might be less demonstrative than some of their opponents, but UCLA’s Londynn Jones can cast a glare when a deep shot goes down, as she did Saturday. Bruins star Kiki Rice can get chatty. And, no, it surprised no one that LSU’s high-profile stars Angel Reese and Flau’Jae Johnson, respectively, had something to say to a UCLA assistant and the Bruins’ fans – because that’s all part of the show, and it’s a good show!

    Mirjam Swanson

    Source link

  • USC women outlast UCLA in double-OT classic to reach Pac-12 tournament title game

    USC women outlast UCLA in double-OT classic to reach Pac-12 tournament title game

    LAS VEGAS — She rocked back and forth for a moment on the hardwood, trying to summon the strength to pull herself up, to rejoin the action continuing without her at the other end of the court.

    Finally, a whistle blew in overtime, and USC’s JuJu Watkins crumpled.

    The freshman guard groped at her left ankle, writhing back and forth in agony, rolling into the fetal position as a trainer rushed over and sat her up. It seemed the death knoll for USC’s Pac-12 tournament hopes, a pall settling over a throng of thumping loyalists and stragglers alike at MGM Grand in Vegas. Not a minute into Friday night’s 80-70 victory over UCLA in a Pac-12 tournament semifinal, Watkins had collapsed similarly after a drive, limping off the court and straight to the tunnel with a sprained left ankle as head coach Lindsay Gottlieb sifted through mental worst-case contingency plans.

    No need. Two minutes later, in that first quarter, she’d hobbled out from the tunnel. And about a minute and a half after she exited on the same ankle sprain in overtime, she somehow came trotting back, throwing herself back into a thicket of UCLA trees like she had never left.

    “Even when I went out, I knew I’d get back in, because my team needed me,” Watkins said, adding later, “it’s just an ankle. Nothing I’m not used to. Feel great.”

    Just an ankle. Yet another gutsy performance that could sit with the rest in Watkins’ freshman year, in what coach Lindsay Gottlieb has called the “storybook of Ju:” 33 points, 14 for 17 from the free-throw line, an ugly 9-for-27 line from the field in an at-times ugly double-overtime descent into madness in the desert.

    But this is simply her, bandages and forehead welts and all, putting her body through a gauntlet through this February and March’s Pac-12 gauntlet and never once accepting the thought that her limbs might simply give way. This was the same kid, Gottlieb remembered with a smile, who she had seen turn her ankle during a 6 a.m. practice back in her high school days at Sierra Canyon and run right back out like nothing was the matter. And when asked postgame about the source of her competitive fuel, Watkins deflected onto her teammates with a bashful grin.

    “We’re talking about it, like, Ivys,” Watkins said, referring to USC’s group of senior Ivy League transfers, “this is their last year. Like, you don’t know what’s going to happen next year. So we’re really taking advantage of everything.”

    This is no longer a program on the rise. This is a USC program (25-5) that has arrived ahead of schedule, officially snatching a season series – barring another matchup in the NCAA tournament – from a UCLA team (25-6) that has long been the standard in Los Angeles, officially earning a berth in the Pac-12 championship game to play a top-seeded Stanford team (27-4) that has long been a standard of women’s college basketball as a whole. And Watkins’ grit was matched in whole by her fellow Trojans on Saturday night, the Ivys – McKenzie Forbes, Kaitlyn Davis and Kayla Padilla – all coming up with big-time plays in a game that seemed set to slip.

    With the score knotted at 59-all in the final seconds of a back-and-forth regulation, a flurry of Watkins attacks was thwarted by UCLA stalwart center Lauren Betts and forward Angela Dugalic and Bruins guard Londynn Jones streaked to the rim for what could’ve been a game-closing layup. Except Padilla – a lithe 5-foot-9 guard who wasn’t known for her defense before arriving at USC from Penn – chased down and swatted Jones’ layup away, setting the stage for overtime.

    As UCLA again held momentum in the first extra period, holding a four-point lead with less than a minute to go, Watkins stepped to the line for a pair of free throws. She made one. Missed the second. Back-breaker – except Davis, who stampeded around the paint like a baby elephant during a 16-rebound night, snared a board and kicked to Forbes for a 3-pointer to tie. On the next possession, Davis swallowed up a Betts layup attempt for a jump ball, roaring and flexing to her bench in glee.

    “I felt like, all of us collectively came into it with a confidence, especially when the game is that tight,” Davis said postgame, “knowing that we can lock in and we’ve done it before.”

    The third-seeded Bruins had every chance to close, a sobering reality for a group that might have lost its chance at a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Both at the end of regulation and the end of the first overtime, they had two seconds for a final shot to win the game, only for guards to dribble nowhere and not even get a shot off before the buzzer. Betts feasted all night, with 17 points and 18 rebounds, but when asked postgame if her 16 shots were enough, Close responded simply: “No.”

    Close, repeatedly, pointed the finger at herself and took accountability for all of it. She noted her displeasure with a lopsided first quarter, second-seeded USC ending the frame on a 16-0 run before a corresponding 16-0 run by UCLA the next period. She emphasized UCLA was out-toughed by USC; beaten, in a sense, at its own game. It’s on me, she repeated, in different variations.

    And it was fitting in a bruising effort Friday night, really, that it ended with one final body bump, Forbes collapsing to the hardwood after a final-second foul from UCLA’s Gabriela Jacquez. Falling unceremoniously, smacking the court again – but with a smile, because there was nothing left but to smile.

    And as Forbes drained her late free throws and the buzzer sounded on a USC win, Marshall snagged a rebound and roared with every decibel left in a tired voice, every fiber left in weary muscles, Kaitlyn Davis and teammates leaping for joy after felling their cross-town rivals once more and proving themselves in the desert.

    Luca Evans

    Source link

  • Alexander: UCLA ‘humbled’ by USC, but will it matter?

    Alexander: UCLA ‘humbled’ by USC, but will it matter?

    LOS ANGELES – It is hard to imagine a team not showing up energized and focused for a rivalry game. Especially a team that had more to play for.

    But that six-game winning streak UCLA compiled before losing at the buzzer to Utah last week? That’s old news, getting smaller in the rear view mirror.

    The chance of getting back to the NCAA Tournament, and giving Mick Cronin his 12th straight trip to March Madness (if you forgive 2020, when there was no tournament because of COVID-19)? It’s hanging by the skinniest of threads. USC, which played its way out of contention for an at-large bid weeks ago, likely extinguished it’s rival’s at-large hopes as well Saturday night with a 62-56 decision at Pauley Pavilion that was a lot more convincing than the final score looked.

    “There’s only one way we can make the tournament,” he said. “You gotta win the conference tournament, by my math.”

    But that might have been the least of his worries, following a discouraging loss and the attitudes during the week of practice that led up to it.

    “It’s a simple game – the team that plays harder usually wins,” Cronin said. “They played much harder than us. They were more physical. They had humility. They came in here looking for redemption. We had no humility. Show me somebody that’s not humble, and I’ll show you somebody getting ready to get humbled.

    “We had our worst week of practice of the season. I failed miserably to get my team ready for the fight that was coming today. And I’m thoroughly embarrassed. I apologize to the people wearing the four letters. Yes, we really struggled making open shots, but that has nothing to do with all the stuff I talked about. The team that wins the fight usually wins the game, and they won the fight in every way. We were awful.”

    Exhibit A: Cronin noted that the top priority listed on the locker room board before the game was to put the clamps on the Trojans’ Boogie Ellis.

    “Do not let him shoot,” Cronin said. “Make somebody else beat us. How’d that work?”

    Ellis had 18 points at halftime, on 6-for-10 shooting and 3 for 5 from 3-point country. He finished with 24. Meanwhile, UCLA’s guards were 5 for 17 from the field in the first half, 7 for 35 for the game with 11 turnovers. And after using a 15-1 run at the end of the first half to tie the game 34-34, UCLA didn’t score a point for the first 7:15 of the second half to fall back again.

    “We missed our first five shots (after halftime), so we just came out flat with no energy,” Adem Bona said.

    The 15-1 run was, Cronin said, the only time during the game he felt his team played hard. Otherwise, “We let them run whatever they wanted to run. We took nothing away from them.”

    The signs evidently were there in the days leading up to the game, and Cronin seemed befuddled that he had to “put guys on the treadmill, yell and scream and run my team the day before you’re playing your rival in front of your biggest crowd of the season … I should have to calm them down.”

    Would this be the sort of experience that might get his players’ attention for the final four regular season games and the conference tournament? Maybe. Maybe not.

    “You would assume they’re extremely humble” after a loss like that, Cronin said, adding that he didn’t expect them to take it as hard as he did.

    “I’m not going to talk to anybody tonight,” he said. “I’m going to hate myself, the job I did. The only person I’m talking to tonight is my dog, okay? And that’s it. I have a recruit in town, so somehow I have to rally tomorrow.

    Jim Alexander

    Source link

  • UCLA basketball comes up short against Utah in wild finish

    UCLA basketball comes up short against Utah in wild finish

    LOS ANGELES — The UCLA men’s basketball team held their emotions in check and stayed together but after a wild scramble in the final seconds, they suffered a heartbreaking 70-69 loss against Utah at Pauley Pavilion Sunday night.

    After being fouled twice in six seconds, sophomore guard Dylan Andrews had 13 seconds left to win the game. It took him less than seven seconds to size up his defender with a crossover and calmy drain a go-ahead jump shot. UCLA led 69-68 with 6.6 seconds to go.

    However, after a wild scramble at the rim off a missed layup by Utah senior guard Deivon Smith, senior center Branden Carlson tipped in the game-winning shot with .2 seconds left.

    Stefanovic, a junior guard from Belgrade, Serbia, who transferred to UCLA from Utah during the offseason, finished with a season-high 19 points and eight rebounds. Sophomore point guard Dylan Andrews had 15 points. Sophomore forward Adem Bona finished with seven points in 18 minutes after spending the game in foul trouble.

    The Bruins (14-12, 9-6) sought but were not able to earn redemption after their embarrassing 90-44 loss to Utah on Jan. 11. Since that game, UCLA has won eight of their last 10 games but the Utes ended the team’s six-game winning streak on Sunday.

    The team’s leading scorer, Sebastian Mack (13.5 points), a 6-foot-2 freshman guard from Chicago, was ejected midway through the first half after being called for a flagrant 2 foul for an apparent elbow to the neck/throat area of Utah’s 7-foot senior center Branden Carlson. Mack finished with four points and one rebound in eight minutes.

    Utah (16-10, 7-8) was led by Smith and Carlson with 17 points each. Senior guards Gabe Madsen and Cole Bajema each added 11 points.

    It was a slow start for the Bruins who trailed 7-0 early. UCLA missed their first three shots before Mack’s driving layup got the Bruins on the scoreboard with 17:05 left in the first half. Andrews drained a 3-pointer to make it 7-5.

    A nice assist from sophomore forward Adem Bona to Andrews for a jump shot just inside the free-throw line put UCLA up 9-8 with 14:03 left in the first. UCLA freshman forward Berke Buyuktuncel’s offensive rebound and putback made it 11-8.

    Mack, the team’s leading scorer at 13.5 points per game, was ejected with 9:53 remaining in the first after being called for a flagrant foul while trying to go through a screen set by Carlson. UCLA led 16-12 at the time. However, Madsen made both four straight free throws to tie the game at 16. Carlson returned to the game less than minutes later.

    Bona’s three-point play put the Bruins up 21-18 with 6:55 to go in the first.

    The Bruins were called for another technical foul, this time on Coach Mick Cronin with 6:04 remaining in the first. Madsen made one of two free throws. UCLA led 21-19 but the Utes retained possession.

    Andrews, a 6-foot-2 180-pound point guard, muscled his way to the rim for a three-point play, which pushed UCLA’s lead to 24-19. Bruins freshman forward Brandon Williams made both free throws, which put UCLA up 26-19, their largest lead of the first half.  Utah responded with a 5-0 run, which cut the Bruins’ advantage to 26-24.

    After another back-and-forth stretch, Bajema made a tough layup through contact, which tied the game at 34 with 40 seconds to go before halftime.

    McClendon’s corner jumper with 12 seconds left in the first half put the Bruins up 36-34 at halftime. Stefanovic had 13 points and six rebounds in the first half, including 8 of 9 from the free throw line.

    Utah began the second half on an 8-2 run. The Utes led 42-38 with 17:35 remaining in the second.

    UCLA senior center Kenneth Nwuba’s baseline spin into a vicious slam dunk and a transition layup by Stefanovic put the Bruins up 44-43.

    A 3-pointer by Andrews gave the Bruins a 49-46 cushion with 12:52 left in the second half. Williams’ turnaround bank shot put UCLA up 53-48. Bejama’s 3-pointer cut it to 53-51. Back-to-back baskets by Stefanovic and Bona put the Bruins up 57-51 with less than eight minutes to go.

    The Utes responded one more, on a 7-0 run, capped off by a three-point play by Smith. Utah led 58-57. Buyuktuncel went right back down and bullied his way inside to put the Bruins back up 59-58. Buytuktuncel followed that up with an even bigger basket, a 3-pointer to go up 62-58 with 5:20 remaining.

    With the game tied at 64 sophomore guard Will McClendon drained a wide-open 3-pointer to put the Bruins up 67-64 with 2:24 to go. Smith’s tough layup cut it to 67-66 with 1:19 to go. The Utes called timeout down one, with 41.4 to go. Sophomore center Keba Keita’s layup put Utah up 68-67 with 19.7 left in the game.

    UP NEXT 

    UCLA will host USC (10-16, 4-11) at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday, Feb. 24.

    John Davis

    Source link

  • Gabriela Jaquez, UCLA women outlast Arizona as Lauren Betts returns

    Gabriela Jaquez, UCLA women outlast Arizona as Lauren Betts returns

    By JILL PAINTER LOPEZ The Associated Press

    LOS ANGELES — The UCLA women’s basketball team got a career effort from a reserve on a night when a key player returned to the lineup.

    Gabriela Jaquez had 21 points and a career-high 15 rebounds, Kiki Rice scored 20 points and the ninth-ranked Bruins defeated Arizona, 66-58, on Friday night at Pauley Pavilion as Lauren Betts returned to the lineup after a four-game absence.

    Rice shot 9 for 12 from the field and scored 10 of her points in the first quarter, while Jaquez scored 10 points in the third quarter. Rice shot 75% but UCLA’s four other starters were a combined 4 for 24. Jaquez was 8 for 15 shooting off the bench.

    UCLA (18-4 overall, 7-4 Pac-12) led 31-28 at halftime and 48-43 after three quarters and always seemed to have an answer for Arizona (12-11, 4-7).

    “We were doing good taking advantage of what was given to us,” Rice said. “I think we had really good ball movement and we recognized who the hot hand was and our defense was leading to offense. And a lot of that was getting those easy reads and lead to points.”

    The Bruins went on a 9-0 run in the third quarter to take a 40-32 lead. When Arizona pulled within three points at 52-49 in the fourth, the Bruins went on a 7-0 run to extend their lead to 59-49.

    Betts returned to the lineup after missing time for an undisclosed medical reason. The Bruins were 2-2 without the 6-foot-7 center, who didn’t start Friday but entered the game in the first quarter.

    Betts, who has the nation’s best field-goal percentage at 68.3% and was averaging more than 15 points per game, scored her first basket in her return on a 6-footer off the glass in the second quarter and finished with six points, nine rebounds and four blocked shots in 27 minutes.

    UCLA had a short bench with Angela Dugalic and Lina Sontag playing in the women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Brazil this weekend. Dugalic is playing for Serbia and Sontag for Germany.

    “It’s huge,” UCLA coach Cori Close said of Betts’ return. “Obviously even more huge because we’re missing Lina and Angela.

    “I think more than that is her spirit. Everyone was talking about that in practice yesterday. It’s not that she’s just a really good player, it’s her energy and spirit for the sake of the team and that was really missed. We’re thrilled to have her back.”

    The Bruins, who are third in the country in offensive rebound percentage, had 18 offensive rebounds with Betts grabbing four of them.

    Esmery Martinez scored 15 points for Arizona, which was without four players. Kailyn Gilbert added 14 points.



    The Associated Press

    Source link

  • UCLA’s Lauren Betts ‘day to day’ with no updates on absence

    UCLA’s Lauren Betts ‘day to day’ with no updates on absence

    WESTWOOD — UCLA women’s basketball head coach Cori Close on Wednesday offered a guarded update on center Lauren Betts, who has missed the Bruins’ past two games for “undisclosed medical” reasons.

    “She practiced a little bit today,” Close said. “She’s day to day and we’re starting to reintegrate her a little bit.”

    Close didn’t go into details on the extent of Betts’ absence, what has caused it or a specific date of when she could return to game action, but she mentioned that UCLA will send out a press release with information Saturday.

    UCLA (16-3, 5-3) faces Cal (13-8, 3-6) at 7 p.m. Friday in Berkeley.

    Betts leads the team with 15.4 points and 8.6 rebounds per game. The Bruins have split their two games without the 6-foot-7 sophomore – pulling away from Washington on Friday before falling behind against Washington State and coming up short Sunday to drop them five spots in the AP poll to No. 7.

    The focus now is on leaning into the strengths of their guards until Betts can return.



    Aaron Heisen

    Source link

  • Charisma Osborne, No. 2 UCLA women pull away from Washington

    Charisma Osborne, No. 2 UCLA women pull away from Washington

    By JILL PAINTER LOPEZ The Associated Press

    LOS ANGELES — Charisma Osborne scored 17 points and Londynn Jones added 13 to lead No. 2 UCLA to a 62-44 victory over Washington on Friday night.

    UCLA (16-2 overall, 5-2 Pac 12) had lost two of its last three games before beating the Huskies. With a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter, UCLA went on a 10-0 run late to build a 60-40 lead.

    Washington (12-6, 2-5) has lost six of its last seven games. Dalayah Daniels had a team-high 14 points and Elle Ladine added 13.

    Lauren Betts, UCLA’s leading scorer at 15.4 points per game and one of the top players in the country, did not play due to undisclosed medical reasons. Washington’s Jayda Noble, a starter, did not make the trip to Los Angeles for undisclosed reasons.

    UCLA and Washington were both cold from the field in the first half. The Bruins made just 8 of 39 shots (20.5%) in the first half while Washington shot just 30%.

    UCLA also had seven turnovers in the first quarter. The Bruins turned it around in the second half, making 15 of 36 shots. Osborne made a 3-pointer from the left wing at the halftime buzzer to give the Bruins a 23-21 halftime lead.

    The Bruins outscored the Huskies 23-15 in the third quarter to take a 46-36 lead. Osborne had a pair of tough 3-point plays in the quarter to lead UCLA.

    The Associated Press

    Source link