LOS ANGELES — While Sienna Betts and Lauren Betts playing on the court together may have been the focus of Tuesday evening, coach Cori Close turned to another aspect of her UCLA women’s basketball squad.
Postgame, Close brought up assistant coach Tasha Brown speaking to the Bruins, attempting to play to what the UCLA head coach called championship standards just over a month into the season.
“March is happening now,” Close said Brown remarked. “Do not deceive yourself. You cannot miss opportunities.”
Eleven games into the season, what may differentiate the Bruins from their peers across the upper echelons of women’s college basketball is the balanced nature of their scoring attack. If March has arrived, the No. 4 Bruins’ offense may be ready to meet the match, especially by adding Sienna Betts to the equation and with senior forward Timea Gardiner still to come.
In UCLA’s 87-point thrashing of Cal Poly on Tuesday, its largest margin of victory in the NCAA era, the Bruins (10-1, 1-0 Big Ten) had all five of their starters score in double figures. Yes, that’s to be expected when any program eclipses the 100-point benchmark, but the consistency of how UCLA scores is what sets them apart.
The Bruins rank 16th in the nation with 85.9 points per game, seventh in field-goal percentage at 50.8% and sixth in assists with 21.6 per game. Sharing the ball has become the identity of UCLA, with six Bruins averaging 10 or more points per game, and four of whom – Lauren Betts, Kiki Rice, Gabriela Jaquez, Gianna Kneepkens – are averaging more than 14.5 points per game.
“The special thing about this group is that everyone’s naturally super selfless,” said Lauren Betts, the senior center who has recorded a double-double in back-to-back contests. “I think we’ve realized throughout the season that we play at our best and at our highest level when we just share the ball.”
Slowing down UCLA at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday will be the main point of emphasis for winless Long Beach State (0-9, 0-2 Big West) – a team with the fourth-worst scoring offense in the country, averaging just 50.2 points per game. Otherwise, more scoring records could be reached for the Bruins.
The Beach lose by an average of 23.1 points per game, have lost only one game by single digits and have yet to play a major-conference foe. One bright spot for Long Beach, however, comes through sophomore guard JaQuoia Jones-Brown.
At 5-foot-6, her height might come at a major disadvantage facing off against a UCLA team that can shuffle in five players at 6-foot or taller at any moment, but through nine games, Jones-Brown has played far above her size. The Georgia native averages 17.2 points and 6.7 rebounds across a team-high 35.7 minutes per game – a big step forward from her freshman season, when Jones-Brown recorded 7.1 points and 5.2 rebounds per game.
Long Beach coach Amy Wright is in her third season with The Beach and has amassed a 31-41 overall record.
Rice, who leads the Bruins in scoring with 15.3 points per game, said postgame Tuesday that they don’t plan on taking the foot off the pedal in blowouts. For 40 minutes, the senior guard said, UCLA has one plan: Use each game as an opportunity for improvement.
“When we come back after break, we’re going to be starting a new season,” Rice said. “(We’re) just using every opportunity to prepare ourselves and look to see where we can improve, get better.”
Long Beach State (0-9) at No. 4 UCLA (10-1)
When: 2 p.m. Saturday
Where: Pauley Pavilion
TV: B1G+
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