Tag: Cori Close

UCLA doesn’t play with its food, hammers Purdue by 34 points

UCLA took a 10-0 lead in the first 100 seconds of its game against Purdue. The Bruins cruised and gave a lot of players a chance to play.

The wins continue to come for the No. 1 UCLA Bruins, who improved to 16-0 with an 83-49 win over Purdue Tuesday night. UCLA women’s basketball will now head back home from Indiana, leaving the state with a pair of victories. UCLA defeated the Indiana Hoosiers on Saturday.

The Bruins didn’t have to sweat it out on Tuesday. UCLA took a 29-13 lead through the first quarter and then a 44-19 advantage at the half. UCLA notably got the comfortable lead without any individual player having to put on her Superwoman cape. Junior forward Janiah Barker led the team with 10 field goal attempts off the bench.

Lauren Betts had a solid but not out-of-the-ordinary night, with 17 points to pace the Bruins in just 22 minutes, her second-lowest total of the season. Junior forward Timea Gardiner hit four threes off the bench, scoring 16 points in 15 minutes. 

The one-sided score made it easy for UCLA head coach Cori Close to give her players lighter minutes to wrap up the road trip. UCLA’s offense as a whole was very efficient on Tuesday, shooting 53% from the field and 45% from three. 

It wasn’t just their shooting which stood out; the Bruins handled Purdue in every facet, having a 17-0 advantage in second chance points, holding a 40-12 lead in points in the paint and finishing with eight more fast break points. It did not take long for UCLA to establish a lead, taking a 13-0 lead in less than three minutes.

The Bruins are now 5-0 in Big Ten play, one of four schools without a conference loss. Next UCLA will host Northwestern on Sunday, with Northwestern being one of the four winless schools in the Big Ten so far this season.

UCLA women are learning how to handle Big Ten road trips

UCLA’s bus ride to Indiana’s Assembly Hall took 39 minutes longer than expected. These and other problems will be addressed.

The No. 1 UCLA Bruins are a perfect 4-0 in Big Ten play in their first season in the conference. However, the Bruins are still learning how to handle their travel schedules for these new trips across the country for conference action.

“We had some adversity that was honestly out of our control,” UCLA’s head coach Cori Close said of the program learning on how to best travel to play their new Big Ten opponents. “We had a little bus transportation problem today.”

The team believed that the trip would be just a six-minute ride. It turned out to be 45 minutes, an issue that will be addressed in the future. The longer bus trip and early tip-off didn’t slow down the Bruins, who secured a 73-62 win over Indiana on Saturday. 

“We came in last night and I think I was talking to our Director of Operations today. I think there’s going to be a learning curve with all of these things and trying to learn, did we like when we came in? Next time do we want to adjust that?” Close said. “The noon tip isn’t tough because we practice at 9 a.m every single day, but you have to get up so much earlier for your pregame meal and for all the other things.”

While it’s an inconvenience for UCLA to labor through these problems, the entire Big Ten will have to adjust, with schools on the East Coast having to get familiar with visits to the West to face UCLA, USC, Washington and Oregon. 

Another complete Lauren Betts masterclass propels Bruins over Indiana

Lauren Betts was elite at both ends of the floor in UCLA’s decisive win at Indiana. Everything which makes her great was consistently displayed.

While it’s not news by any means that UCLA’s junior center Lauren Betts is one of the most dominant players in college basketball, Saturday’s win over Indiana proved to be another example of Betts’ greatness on both sides of the court.

Betts scored 25 points on 12-16 shooting with 12 rebounds while facing double-teams consistently throughout the game. Her impact on UCLA’s offense is always apparent, but her defensive impact can go a bit under the radar for the 15-0 Bruins.

UCLA’s defensive prowess was on full display in the first half on Saturday, keeping the Hoosiers at 16 points from the 1:09 mark in the first quarter to the 2:56 mark in the second quarter. Indiana scored five points in the entire second period.

“Lauren just is really difficult. She’s able to switch out and be mobile laterally when we need her to,” Close said of her center, who had two blocks and a steal on Saturday. “The two things that they (Indiana) really make a living on are their shuffle picks and back picks and the three-point shot. We were able to go over the top and funnel everything and Lauren was able to help on all of those picks.”

The 6’7” Betts certainly makes things difficult for opposing offenses, but opposing defenses try to return the favor by throwing multiple defenders Betts’ way to force the ball out of her hands. 

“In the first half I had a few possessions where I struggled figuring out the double-team and I had some turnovers but I think going back to the locker room and just figuring out how I can be patient in that and just finding my teammates,” Betts said of the double-teams. “We work on it every single day in practice, so it’s nothing new honestly to me. I’ve been dealing with it for a lot of my basketball career.”

Betts and the Bruins will look to improve to 16-0 on Tuesday in an away game against Purdue. 

No. 1 Bruins will their way to victory over Indiana, move to 15-0

The Bruins were not at their best, but they handled Indiana by 11. Cori Close spoke about the team’s toughness, which shone through on the road.

The No.1 UCLA Bruins will leave Bloomington still unbeaten after their 73-62 win on Saturday over Indiana. Even if the UCLA women’s basketball team had to sweat it out a bit, the Bruins moved to 15-0 for just the second time in program history. 

Despite the fact that UCLA led by double-digits nearly all of the fourth quarter, with Indiana not scratching to within eight points until there was less than a minute remaining in the fourth, things didn’t feel necessarily smooth for the top team in the country.

Not only did the team seem more reliant than ever on junior Lauren Betts, who had another terrific game on Saturday with 25 points and 12 rebounds, but the victory wasn’t a glamourous one. The Bruins relied more on their toughness than their talent, which is something that Bruins head coach Cori Close was happy to see. 

“Credit to them. I’m really impressed with the job that they did,” Close said of Indiana. “But I was also really impressed with our team. I’ve been really challenging them recently to be willing to win ugly. To be willing to win in a gritty way and not a pretty way.”

There have been plenty of highlights since the start of the season, but Saturday’s win felt a bit more translatable to March, when the Bruins will have to battle for wins, regardless of how much talent resides on their roster. 

“This wasn’t our best day,” Close said of her team, “but I thought the way they responded to adversity and willing to just win ugly, I’m impressed with.”

UCLA will stay in Indiana as it prepares for another Big Ten test on Tuesday against Purdue.

No. 1 Bruins will learn about themselves against Indiana

Let’s see how the Bruins respond to an earlybird start time on a Saturday in the Midwest.

The No. 1 ranked UCLA Bruins will head to the Eastern time zone for a conference game for the very first time in program history for Saturday morning’s Big Ten matchup against the 10-3 Indiana Hoosiers. UCLA women’s basketball will have to head over 2,000 miles east for their matchup against the Hoosiers and not only do the Bruins have a long flight ahead of them, they have to be ready for a 9:00 a.m. (Pacific Standard Time) tip-off. It won’t be the first time UCLA had to travel far for a game this season, after opening the season in France and heading to Hawaii for the Rainbow Wahine Showdown. It’s just the Bruins’ second Big Ten road game but the first came against old Pac-12 rival Washington up in Seattle. 

At 14-0, UCLA’s record is still without a blemish but head coach Cori Close said that it won’t stay that way unless the Bruins play team basketball more consistently.

“I’m really excited that we have such a tough opponent in a very hostile environment this very next game because I think it’s going to force us to be like ‘You want to keep winning? You better buck up,’” Close said of Saturday’s matchup. “You go into Bloomington with that level of urgency and concentration, we’re going to get beat.”

UCLA will have two games in Indiana before heading back to Westwood, facing Purdue on Tuesday. After this roadstand, the Bruins will return to the East Coast later this month for the Coretta Scott King Classic against Baylor before facing Rutgers and Maryland and then again in February to face Iowa and Wisconsin. UCLA will likely return to Indiana for the Big Ten tournament in March. 

Saturday’s game against Indiana will be aired on Fox, giving the national audience a chance to see how the Bruins respond to an early gametime.

UCLA’s Kiki Rice sets benchmark for 2025 season in pursuit of Final Four

Kiki Rice distributing 10 assists in a game will, if replicated, make UCLA extremely hard to beat.

The ball was moving for the No. 1-ranked UCLA Bruins on Wednesday in their 86-70 win over Michigan. The victory moved the Bruins to 3-0 in Big Ten play. UCLA racked up 29 assists, their second-most in a game this season, behind their 30-assist game against Long Beach State in a 102-51 win for the Bruins. Junior guard Kiki Rice certainly did her part, with 10 assists in 31 minutes while junior center Lauren Betts added five assists, many of which came out of Michigan double-teams on Betts in the post.

“A lot of that credit goes to Lauren,” Close said of Betts in the postgame interview. “Every time we got Lauren a touch, she didn’t necessarily score every time in the first half but we created a rotation and then we got an assist or an easy bucket off of her handling of double-teams.”

UCLA turned the ball over 15 times in the game, just one less than their season average, while boosting their assists per game to 21.1 on the season. The 15 turnovers was a major step in the right direction, following the Bruins turning the ball over 26 times last week against Nebraska. 

“When we start to try and do stuff on our own and think about ourselves, we’re not a good team,” Close said. “We’re just a talented bunch of individuals.”

Kiki Rice made sure the talented individuals worked together on the court with her 10 assists against Michigan. UCLA is currently fourth in the nation in assists but is 23rd when it comes to the team’s assist to turnover ratio at 1.32. The Bruins return to Big Ten action on Saturday on the road against Indiana.

Kiki Rice handing out more dimes needs to be a constant feature for UCLA women’s basketball. If Rice can become a 10-assist player in more games (she currently averages four per game), UCLA’s Final Four dream will very likely come true.

‘I thought they out-toughed us’ — Cori Close on UCLA win over Michigan

Cori Close watched her UCLA team beat Michigan by 16. She wasn’t satisfied. This is the mentality of a team which needs to set the highest standard.

At 14-0, there’s not much to complain about for the No. 1-ranked UCLA women’s basketball team, which began 2025 with an 86-70 win over Michigan on New Year’s Day at home. However, Bruins head coach Cori Close declared the Wolverines as the tougher team in Wednesday’s game.

“I thought they out-toughed us tonight,” Close said of Michigan in the postgame press conference. “We may have more talent pieces and may have won the game but they won the toughness, togetherness battle.”

Close was also complimentary toward Michigan head coach Kim Barnes Arico, who Close has known since the two were at Florida State and St. John’s, with Close saying that Barnes Arico’s teams always bring the toughness they played with on Wednesday. 

Michigan held its own against the terrific rebounding UCLA squad, bringing down 32 boards compared to the Bruins’ 37. The Wolverines forced 15 UCLA turnovers.

“I told our team we didn’t win enough teamwork plays, transition D, 50-50s, rebounding, executing the scouting report, bench energy,” Close listed. “It wasn’t one of our better games. We have an immense amount of talent but we have to decide whether we want to win individual games or we want to become a championship team. That’s a decision we have to make right away.”

UCLA has yet to reach that threshold as a program. While the Bruins feature a loaded roster, they haven’t appeared in the Elite Eight since 2018 and have not won an NCAA national championship or made the Final Four. Throughout their wins this year, Close has remained vocal about their shortcomings and how to become a championship team. They still have to clean things up.

Cori Close still craves improvement after 91-54 win

Cori Close still wants more.

While Bruins head coach Cori Close was pleased with the result on Sunday, as UCLA thumped Nebraska 91-54 in the Bruins’ Big Ten home opener, there was plenty that Close didn’t love from her #1 ranked team in the win. 

“Not anywhere close to our best,” Close said of their performance. “I didn’t think we were as mentally focused today on our team gameplan.”

UCLA had a season-high 26 turnovers and led just 37-30 at halftime on Sunday.

“We could have played much better teamwork basketball and 26 turnovers is just unacceptable,” Close said. “That being said, thankful, because we responded in a dominant way but we need to prepare in a more focused, teamwork-oriented way.”

Close did say she was pleased with how the UCLA defense locked down the Cornhuskers offense, in particular, senior center Alexis Markowski and freshman guard Britt Prince, who combined for only ten points in the game while averaging 26.7 points per game as a duo.

“We shut down their two best players,” Close said. “A lot of good things that way.”

The 54 points allowed on Sunday bumped the Bruins average to 50.9 per game on the season, the fifth best mark in the entire country while UCLA continues to own the best rebounding margin in the league. 

At 13-0, UCLA has held the #1 since late November after the Bruins defeated then #1 South Carolina.

UCLA women’s hoops tops AP Top 25 poll for sixth-straight week

The Bruins are top dogs yet again.

The UCLA women’s basketball team is on a tear. After bulldozing Nebraska 91-54, the Bruins improved a perfect 13-0 record and secured head coach Cori Close’s 300th victory with the program.

This week, the Bruins remained atop the AP Top 25 poll for the sixth straight week. The only remaining undefeated program in the top five, UCLA edged out South Carolina, Notre Dame, rival USC, and Texas for the number one spot.

With an undefeated record and a fifteen-point statement win over South Carolina in November, UCLA remains the undisputed best team in women’s college basketball.

That said, in the new year, the Bruins will have some stiff competition.

With games against No. 24 Michigan and No. 8 Maryland in January and No. 10 Ohio State and No. 4 USC in February, the Bruins will need to play their best basketball soon.

In games featuring some of the best players with Big Ten-standing implications, UCLA must stay focused to avoid peaking too early before March Madness this spring.

Lauren Betts returns for 91-54 Big Ten beatdown of Nebraska

Another strong performance.

Another game, same result for the UCLA women’s basketball team, who moved to 13-0 on the season after their 91-54 win over Wisconsin on Sunday in the Big Ten home opener.

In addition to the big win, UCLA saw junior center Lauren Betts return to action after missing the previous two games with a leg injury but Betts didn’t miss a beat in her return, scoring 21 points and eight rebounds on 8-15 shooting. Betts led UCLA in scoring with junior Kiki Rice finishing with 18 on 8-8 shooting while adding four steals and six rebounds.

As a team, the Bruins shot 56% in the game, while holding the Cornhuskers to 33%. UCLA is now 2-0 in the Big Ten before the Bruins face Michigan at home on New Year’s Day. Sunday’s win also #300 for Bruins’ head coach Cori Close, the first in program history to reach the feat.

The Bruins didn’t do a great job of taking care of the basketball, turning the ball over 26 times, a season-high for UCLA, with the second-most coming in the first game of the season in France where UCLA had 22 turnovers. Betts had four of the turnovers, junior Londynn Jones had five and freshman Elina Aarnisalo had eight in only 11 minutes of action.

While UCLA struggled with turnovers, they did not struggle on the glass, with the Bruins crushing Nebraska 48-18 on the boards. Entering Sunday’s game, UCLA already owned the best rebounding margin in the country with +19.3 per game, the Bruins had a +30 advantage against Nebraska with the return of Betts helping the cause.