Cori Close spoke on junior center Lauren Betts’ injury which caused her to miss the game against Cal Poly on Monday during the postgame interview, calling out opponents going low against Betts and other Bruins.
Close specified that Betts is “not in a serious situation” with her injury but did say that her injury was caused by opposing teams hitting the 6’7” Betts low but she added that the team hopes to have Betts return “very soon.”
“Teams that are smaller than us, I get it, we have a huge advantage, what can not be allowed is taking our players out at the legs,” Close said Monday night. “We’ve had injury after injury this year.”
The Bruins are a perfect 11-0 but they’ve still felt the wrath of injuries from opponents attacking the legs of UCLA.
“That’s the reason that Lauren Betts is out today, because of a play that happened just like that,” Close said. “She’s not the only one that’s where it’s happened this year. I really need our officials to lock in to that and we can’t feel sorry for the other team because they’re at a disadvantage, we need to have solid play so that everybody stays healthy.”
UCLA currently has the best rebounding margin in the country at +18.1 and have the fourth most rebounds per game at 46.6. Even with the Bruins’ statistical dominance in those categories, Close demands opposing teams to not target her players knees and legs.