The #5 ranked UCLA Bruins comfortably handled business in their home opener Sunday afternoon with a 81-63 win over Colgate University with junior center Lauren Betts leading the way with a 31-point game, missing just three shots from the field.
It wasn’t only Betts on Sunday, with Finnish freshman guard Elina Aarnisalo, scoring 19 points in just her second-ever collegiate game. Aarnisalo shot 8-10 from the field and 2-4 from three but she did more than just score the ball on Sunday, getting two steals, five rebounds and six assists. The freshman did turn the ball over six times in the win but her impact with the absence of Kiki Rice and Charlisse Leger-Walker.
UCLA dominated the paint throughout Sunday’s game, with the Bruins outrebounding Colgate 37-28 and had 46 points in the paint compared to the Raiders’ 10. Even with the win, UCLA head coach Cori Close wasn’t satisfied entirely in the postgame press conference.
“We can do better with our urgency, we can do better with our consistency on the defensive end, we can do better in our hustle plays. There’s more in us,” Close said. “That’s going to be my point of accountability for our program and I’ll teach through the rest. I know there’s a lot of people out there doing things for the first time but we got some work to do.”
As a team, UCLA shot 57.6% while connecting on 7 of their 17 three point attempts while forcing 17 turnovers from the Raiders. Junior guard Londynn Jones and junior forward Timea Gardiner joined Betts and Aarnisalo with double-digit scoring, with the fifth member of the Bruins’ starting lineup, freshman forward Kendall Dudley going scoreless in 22 minutes before fouling out.
“There needs to be a balance of what I call the healthy tension, of stern accountability and just consistent teaching,” Close said. “There’s just things we need more reps and we need to know more.”
UCLA has another showing at Pauley Pavilion on Tuesday against Pepperdine University, with tip-off set for 11:30 a.m.