Tag: Kiki Rice

A brief history of UCLA superstar Lauren Betts

Lauren Betts has a younger sister who is committed to UCLA. Lauren is helping UCLA now and in the future.

People who haven’t studied UCLA women’s basketball the past two seasons might not be familiar with the dominant presence known as Lauren Betts.

Betts stands out in every game, in part because of how tall she is standing. At 6’7”, Betts is almost always the tallest player on the court. Her height has helped her cement herself as one of the top shot blockers in UCLA basketball history.

Betts’ collegiate career didn’t start out in Westwood. She spent her freshman season at Stanford but didn’t get much action on the court. She played in 33 games but only 9.6 minutes per game. She was playing behind Cameron Brink, who logged most of the minutes at the center position for Stanford.

Betts was the No. 1 recruit in the 2022 prospect class, ahead of current teammates (No. 2) Kiki Rice and (No. 3) Janiah Barker, along with current UCLA players Timea Gardiner, Gabriela Jaquez and Londynn Jones, who were all top-25 prospects in 2022.

With Brink remaining at Stanford, Betts opted to transfer out and head south to UCLA. It didn’t take long for Betts to adjust to the heavier workload, being named an All-Pac-12 player and making the conference’s All-Defensive team. Betts averaged 13.7 points, 8.6 rebounds with 2.13 blocks.

All of those numbers have grown this season, at 21 points, 9.9 rebounds and 3 blocks while helping the Bruins get off to the best start of a season in program history at 20-0. 

There’s more bad news for non-UCLA women’s college basketball fans: Lauren has a younger sister, Sienna Betts, the No. 2 2025 recruit who has verbally committed to UCLA. Sienna Betts is currently playing her senior season of high school ball in Aurora, Colorado, where she has averages of 23.5 points, 16.7 rebounds and 3.8 blocks.

Kiki Rice is helping Lauren Betts and UCLA in January

Kiki Rice had a lot to be happy about after her winning performance versus Maryland.

While center Lauren Betts stole the headlines in UCLA’s recent 82-67 win over Maryland, guard Kiki Rice returned to her home state of Maryland and had quite a homecoming game.

Rice had 19 points and six rebounds in the game, both second on the Bruins behind Betts, with a game-high seven assists and three steals. 

“It was fantastic,” Rice said of the return to College Park, Maryland. “Growing up in Maryland and going to camps here. I played here so many times just growing up in middle school and even before that.”

Rice’s per game averages have stayed similar to her in her All-Pac-12 sophomore season but her efficiency in the 2024-2025 season has gone way up. She’s shooting a career-high 55.7% from the field and is up to a 35.7% percent shooter while remaining strong at the free throw line at 84%. 

“It was really exciting to see so many of my family and friends come out here,” Rice said. “A lot of people from our high school came out and just so many supporters. It was really awesome to get to play here.”

Rice headed across the country to California before the 2022-2023 season to play with head coach Cori Close and since then, there’s been few teams in the country that’s won more games than the Bruins, with UCLA sporting a 74-17 record.

“Only undefeated team left in men’s and women’s college basketball, so that’s pretty cool,” Rice said. And individually, I felt really good out there.”

Improved 3-point shooting could take UCLA to greater heights

The Bruins will be even tougher to beat than they already are if they can shoot moderately well from 3-point range.

Given how dominant the UCLA women’s basketball team has been this season, it’s a bit surprising the Bruins own only the No. 14 scoring offense in the country, behind three other Big Ten schools. 

Those numbers will grow more in the Bruins’ favor if they’re able to shoot 3-pointers the way they were able to against Rutgers on Thursday in the game’s first three quarters. UCLA went 9-23 (39.1%) through three quarters before cooling off entirely and going 0-6 in the fourth. 

Currently UCLA is 133rd in the country in 3-point percentage at 32.4% and is 117th with 6.9 made threes per game. When junior Londynn Jones knocks down four triples and senior Angela Dugalic goes 2-2, you can imagine just how lethal the Bruins could be with slightly more accurate long-range shooting.

Junior Kiki Rice knocked down a pair of triples, going 2-4 on the game. Rice, Dugalic and Jones went a combined 8-14 while the rest of the Bruins went 1-15, with the only make coming from junior Gabriela Jaquez. 

The more effective UCLA can be at knocking down threes, the harder it becomes for opponents to send multiple bodies to Lauren Betts down low, making life easier for the 6’7” superstar. When the Bruins head to the Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments, the talent gap between UCLA and its opponents will shrink. The team will have to rely a bit more on jump shooting and less on overpowering other teams. 

UCLA has saved its best for when it needed it most, as the win over South Carolina showed. In that game, the Bruins had their best 3-point game of the season, going 10-21 from deep shooting a season-high 47.6%.

No. 1 UCLA, Lauren Betts pull away from Baylor to remain unbeaten

Lauren Betts against Baylor — 24 points, 9 rebounds, 9 blocked shots. That is superstar-level stuff for the Bruins and their best player. UCLA is 18-0.

The UCLA women’s basketball team stayed unbeaten with a win over a ranked opponent on Martin Luther King Day. The Bruins and superstar Lauren Betts notched a 72-57 victory over the No. 25 Baylor Bears. No. 1 UCLA moved to 18-0 on the season with the win, extending the best start to a season in program history. 

The Bears couldn’t figure out the Bruins’ defense on Monday, shooting a rough 27.5% from the field. One of the main reasons Baylor kept it as close as it did was a large number of UCLA turnovers. The Bruins turned the ball over 18 times, which led to 26 points off turnovers for Baylor.

UCLA got off to a terrific start in the first quarter, opening the game on a 17-2 run before heading to the second period up 19-9. Baylor would win the second quarter 20-18 but still trailed 37-29 at the half. Lauren Betts broke the game open in the third quarter, dominating on both sides to give the Bruins breathing room. 

Baylor had no one to handle Betts while posting up offensively. The Bears were unable to work around Betts, who set a new program single-game block record with nine. Betts added 24 points and nine rebounds in the win.

Betts wasn’t alone, however, in propelling UCLA to victory. Junior Kiki Rice had a strong game as she returned home to the East Coast. She scored 15 points on just seven shots from the field. Rice and junior Londynn Jones provided constant pressure to the Bears’ guards as they brought the ball up the floor, making everything difficult for Baylor. 

UCLA will spend a few days in New Jersey as it awaits a matchup against Rutgers on Thursday.

UCLA women’s basketball players react to historic start to season

UCLA players are relishing the present moment but know they will be judged based on what they do in March.

The story is far from over for the 2024-2025 UCLA women’s basketball team. However, the opening chapters have been historic with the team setting a program record with consecutive wins to start the season. UCLA has spent eight weeks as the No. 1 team in the nation. 

“It’s awesome,” junior guard Kiki Rice said of the storybook start to the season. “The first time that a team has been 17-0 here and I think it’s a testament to the hard work of the players, the coaches of having us prepared and the entire staff.”

Rice is in her third season with UCLA, in her time as a Bruin she’s had a record of 71-10, winning over 87% of the games played.

“We know this is just a step in the right direction,” Rice said. “We didn’t set out to be 17-0 and break that record. Our goal is for the end of season.”

It’s been smooth sailing for the Bruins ever since escaping France with a narrow win over Louisville to begin their season but things will likely get tighter for UCLA as we head farther into conference play and eventually the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments.

“We need to do anything we can to be prepared for when it hits March, when everyone’s best is coming out and that’s when the details are going to matter,” Junior guard Gabriela Jaquez said. “Me and Kiki both have fell short at the Sweet 16 and it was really painful. I think Coach Cori and our coaching staff saw how hurt we were obviously and we’re not satisfied.”

UCLA’s Kiki Rice has high praise for her most recent opponent

UCLA’s Kiki Rice faced a tough one-on-one matchup against Indiana. This should make her better for future games.

The top-ranked UCLA Bruins were able to hold off the Indiana Hoosiers on Saturday 73-62, even with star guard Kiki Rice having an off shooting game. 

Rice went just 3-13 from the field but was able to help UCLA in other ways, getting to the free throw line eight times and tallying seven rebounds and seven assists with two steals. The junior was matched up with Indiana’s Chloe Moore-McNeil, who’s made the Big Ten Defensive Team the previous two seasons with the Hoosiers. 

“She’s a great defender,” Rice said of Moore-McNeil. “Definitely one of the better ones that I’ve faced this season. I think her length and her ability to really move on the perimeter and get through screens and all that was definitely a tough matchup.”

Rice still ended with 12 points in Saturday’s game, but it was her first time since November she shot below 50% from the field.

“Watch the film and learn from it.” Rice said.

Rice is matching her career high in points per game with 13.2 while shooting a career best 56.5% from the field. 

Tuesday should be a better matchup for the Bruins’ offense, facing Purdue, which has the No. 17 scoring defense in the Big Ten. That is a sharp contrast with playing the conference’s No. 2 scoring defense in Indiana. UCLA will tip off against the Boilermakers on Tuesday at 4 p.m. Pacific time. The game will be aired on the Big Ten Network.

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.

No issues on New Year’s, UCLA moves to 14-0

The UCLA Bruins women’s basketball team picked up another top-25 win on New Year’s Day with a 86-70 win over No. 24 Michigan.

The UCLA Bruins women’s basketball team picked up another top-25 win on New Year’s Day with a 86-70 win over No. 24 Michigan after the Bruins led by only seven points entering the fourth quarter.

Even though the date of the game was 1/1, there were double-doubles to celebrate for the Bruins on Wednesday, with juniors Lauren Betts and Kiki Rice each recording a double-double in the first game of the new year. Betts had 13 points, ten rebounds and four blocks in the game while Rice added 16 points, 10 assists and three steals. 

Rice missed the start of the season with an injury and eased her way back in, averaging 5.67 points per game in her first three games of the year. Since then she’s been terrific, with her points per game sitting at 16.13 over her last eight games, scoring double-figures in every game except one. 

Not only did Rice have an efficient game shooting the ball, 6-8 from the field and 4-4 from the line, she reached another milestone as she collected her 300th career assist with UCLA. 

Michigan hit a buzzer beater to end the first half to trim UCLA’s lead to 40-29 at halftime, by the start of the fourth quarter it was 57-50 as the Wolverines were able to keep it competitive against the Bruins.

The seven points were as close as Michigan would get in the fourth quarter, with consecutive threes by junior Londynn Jones pushing the UCLA lead to 13 with under eight minutes to play as the UCLA offense put the game on ice with 29 4th quarter points. 

With the win, UCLA now sits at 14-0 and 3-0 in the Big Ten. Next the Bruins will head to Indiana to face the Hoosiers on Saturday at 9:00a.m. 

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.

UCLA women’s basketball moves to 12-0 with win in Bay Area over Creighton

Another win!

The UCLA Bruins women’s basketball team continued their winning ways in San Francisco Friday evening with a 70-41 win over Creighton in the Bay Area Women’s Classic. 

There was no Lauren Betts for the Bruins but it was no problem, as UCLA won their second straight game without their junior center who is dealing with a minor lower body injury. Junior guard Kiki Rice picked up the slack, just as Betts did earlier this season when Rice was out with an injury. Rice scored a game-high 20 points on 8-13 shooting with five rebounds and four assists.

The 20 points was Rice’s second highest total this year, having scored 21 points against Hawaii earlier this month. Senior forward Angela Dugalic was the only other Bruin in double-figures with 13 points and 14 rebounds, helping step up in Betts’ absence. UCLA handled business on the boards, bringing in 59 while Creighton tracked down only 26. Other than Rice and Dugalic, no other Bruin had more than three baskets.

UCLA bullied Creighton in the opening quarter, winning the opening period 26-4. The Bruins’ defense was smothering the Bluejays on Friday, after allowing the four points in the first, UCLA allowed 19 points in the second before tightening back up by allowing eight and ten points in the second half. 

At 12, UCLA has successfully dodged any pre-conference play losses, jumping back into Big Ten play next Sunday when Nebraska visits Pauley Pavilion for the Bruins’ first conference home game of the season.