Tag: ucla women’s basketball

Charlisse Leger-Walker out for season as she recovers from ACL tear

A tough blow for UCLA.

The UCLA Bruins announced that Charlisse Leger-Walker will not return this season, as she continues to recover from an ACL tear that occurred in January while she was playing with Washington State while facing UCLA at Pauley Pavilion. 

In the offseason Leger-Walker joined the Bruins from the transfer portal. Even while being expected to miss start of the season, Leger-Walker was still named still named to the Wooden Award Top-50 Watchlist. 

“Although we would prefer her to be fully health and playing with us right now, we are really excited to announce that Charlisse will be coming back for another year,” UCLA head coach Cori Close said in an announcement on Friday. “She will be redshirting this year, but we’re very excited for our Bruin fans to see her for the entire 2025-26 season.”

In 105 career collegiate games, Leger-Walker has averaged 16.6 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. 

“I had hoped I would be competing with the Bruins this season, but I’ve decided I need more time to get back,” Leger-Walker said. “I am looking forward to getting fully healthy, training at an elite level, and coming back to the court next year.”

Leger-Walker is originally from New Zealand and attended St. Peter’s Cambridge High School before joining Washington State in 2020.

UCLA holds off Hawaii 70-49 to claim Rainbow Wahine Showdown championship

UCLA gets the title in Hawaii.

The UCLA Bruins secured the Rainbow Wahine Showdown championship on Sunday with a 70-49 win over Hawaii, moving to 8-0 on the season.

The 70 points was the second lowest total in a game this season for the #1 Bruins, with UCLA holding a slim 32-29 halftime lead before the Bruins defense suffocated Hawaii in the second half, holding them to 7-27 shooting in the second half while outscoring Hawaii 38-20.

UCLA held a strong edge in the rebounding department, with a 44-26 advantage on the boards, that’s coming even with junior center Lauren Betts bringing in a season-low three rebounds. Betts still poured in 18 points for the Bruins, second most on the team below junior guard Kiki Rice who 21 points as she continues to look sharp after being out of the lineup with an injury. 

Rice went 7-10 from the field and hit two threes and two steals. The 21 points wwereseason-high, with Rice averaging 14 points per game in the Rainbow Wahine Showdown. Junior Gabriela Jaquez continued her string of strong showings, earning a place in the starting lineup and she didn’t disappoint, 11 points on 5-6 shooting with seven rebounds. 

Jaquez, Betts, and Rice were all named to the All-Tournament team, with Betts being named MVP. While not having her most eye-popping statistical performance, Betts still added two blocks and a steal. It’s now the second year in a row that the Bruins have jumped out to an 8-0 start to the season, with UCLA winning their first 14 games last year. The chance for 9-0 will come next Sunday on the road against Washington in the Bruins’ Big Ten opener.

UCLA women’s team beats Fresno State by 56 points

A massive blowout for UCLA.

The UCLA Bruins pushed their season-opening win streak to seven games after defeating Fresno State 97-41 on Saturday, as the #1 Bruins continue to impress with only one of their wins coming by single digits.

It was business as usual for UCLA in their second game in the 2024 Rainbow Wahine Showdown against the Bulldogs, dropping 97 points for the second straight game, the Bruins’ fourth game this year with at least 90 points. 

UCLA jumped in front 29-17 after the first quarter but in the second quarter, the Bruins turned off Fresno State’s faucet, as the Bulldogs’ offense experienced a dry spell, scoring only six points in the second period. Things didn’t improve too much for Fresno in the second half, scoring just 18 total points after halftime.

Junior center Lauren Betts etched her sixth double-double of the season, with 20 points and 12 rebounds. It wasn’t her most efficient game, with four turnovers and one assist while shooting 9-16 from the field. Junior guard Gabriela Jaquez continued her strong play off of the bench with 15 points on 7-9 shooting, for her third straight game in double-figures.

Junior guard Kiki Rice had her best game of the season, with the Wooden Award Watchlist member posting a season-high 15 points in just her fourth game of the season after coming back from a shoulder injury. Rice played 24 minutes and made six of her nine shots while adding six assists and three steals. 

The Bruins’ offense only problem on Saturday came at the free throw line, going 8-16 from the charity stripe, shooting at a higher percentage from the field (56%) than they did at the line. 

UCLA will end their Rainbow Wahine Showdown action on Sunday against host school Hawaii.

Top-ranked UCLA women’s basketball one of eight ranked Big Ten schools

Lots of love for the Big Ten.

The Associated Press top-25 rankings for NCAA women’s basketball is littered with Big Ten schools as UCLA holds the top spot for the first time in program history. 

While the Bruins top the list, you don’t have to travel too far down the rankings to find a conference foe, with USC sitting at #6 following the Trojans loss to Notre Dame last week. Another Big Ten school rounds out the top-ten with the Maryland Terrapins sitting at #10 after their 6-0 start to the season. 7-0 Ohio State is right below Maryland at #11.

Illinois sits at #19 after starting the season 6-1, with their one loss coming against #14 Kentucky. Undefeated Oregon gets bumped up to #21 after being ranked #23 last week. The 7-0 Iowa Hawkeyes sits right behind the Ducks at #22 with the team remaining in the top-25 even with guard Caitlin Clark leaving for the WNBA following last season. 

The final Big Ten school in the top-25 is the #25 Nebraska Cornhuskers who are 6-1 this year, with their loss coming against unranked Creighton. 

With eight of the 25 ranked schools coming from the Big Ten shows the stiff level of competition the Bruins will have to go against if they want to win the first conference title in the new-look Big Ten. 

UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington all joined the Big Ten from the Pac-12 following last year where new ACC school Stanford won the regular season championship before USC won the Pac-12 tournament. 

DeShaun Foster shouts out UCLA’s women’s basketball team for #1 ranking

Strong praise from Foster!

UCLA Bruins head coach DeShaun Foster ended his media availability on Monday with a special message to the UCLA women’s basketball team and head coach Cori Close after they defeated defending champion South Carolina on Sunday and became the AP #1 team in the nation for the first time in school history.

“Hold on, there was one team that beat SC this weekend,” Foster said. “Our women’s basketball team did a great job, came out dominated the #1 team. They’re also the #1 now themselves. I’m just so proud of them and Coach Close, she does a good job over there, she’s truly built a culture.”

After becoming the Bruins head coach in 2011, Close has led UCLA to a 287-140 record, the third coach in program history to record 200 wins. She’s likely to tack onto to that win total, with the Bruins starting the season 5-0 and earning the title as top team in the country.

“They’re always in the top-ten but it was awesome to see them,” Foster said. “The atmosphere that was in that arena, I hadn’t seen anything like that since Baron Davis. It was pretty cool.”

Close responded back to Foster on X saying “Thank you @DeShaunFoster26 and @UCLAFootball . You are really special to us. We appreciate you coming and for all the support. Bruins stick together.” 

Foster and the Bruins will host the Fresno State Bulldogs in the regular season finale for the 4-7 UCLA squad.

Cori Close simplifies UCLA’s win over South Carolina: ‘We have Lauren and they don’t’

An honest take from Cori Close.

The UCLA Bruins’ success against #1 South Carolina can’t be broken down to just one reason, the commanding win to end the Gamecocks’ 43-game win streak required many facets of the Bruins’ game to be top-tier but head coach Cori Close was able to diagnose the win with just six words.

“We have Lauren and they don’t.” Close said on the broadcast in a postgame interview of her junior center Lauren Betts. 

Betts had far from her best scoring performance on Sunday, finishing with just 11 points but her impact far outweighed the 11 points, piling up 14 rebounds and four blocks. An area where Betts has improved in her second season as a Bruin is playmaking. She had four assists in Sunday’s win, with her season average sitting at 3.4 per game, up from only 0.9 last year.

While Close gave the blunt statement about Betts immediately after the Bruins’ 77-62 win on Sunday, she also expressed her respect for South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley.

“First of all they have set the standard,” Close said. “Such a respect for Dawn Staley, and her whole entire staff and team but we believed that we would win. We always say that it begins before it begins and we do the work mentally and we prepared really well.”

Now the Bruins are the #1 team in the country, taking the throne from the Gamecocks this week before returning to action on Friday at the Rainbow Wahine Showdown in Hawaii against UT Martin.

Lauren Betts tells college basketball world to wake up after win over South Carolina

What a message from Lauren Betts.

After defeating previously unbeaten South Carolina on Sunday 77-62, junior center Lauren Betts had a strong message for the college basketball world.

“If you’ve been sleeping on UCLA, you need to stop right now!” Betts said on the broadcasts’ postgame interview Sunday.

The Bruins are now 5-0 on the season following their Sweet 16 loss to LSU in March Madness last season. Betts alongside junior guard Kiki Rice and the rest of the talented Bruins squad have set their goals a little higher this year.

“We worked our butts off all week,” Betts said following UCLA’s first-ever win against the #1 team in the country. “I’m just so happy, so proud of all of the work we put in. We really earned this.”

The Gamecocks limited Betts to just eight field goal attempts, as she hit five of them to score 11 points in the win. She was still able to impact the game, with a season-high 14 rebounds, four blocks and four assists.

“I’m surrounded by amazing teammates and we play so selfless and whenever their number is called, they’re just ready to go,” Betts said. “I’m just so proud of this team.”

Now for the first time in school history the Bruins are the top team in the country as they enter the Rainbow Wahine Showdown tournament in Hawaii this weekend where UCLA will face UT Martin, Fresno State and Hawaii.

South Carolina’s Dawn Staley dishes on UCLA’s ‘beautiful’ play

Dawn Staley had a lot of praise.

South Carolina’s head coach Dawn Staley left Sunday’s game against UCLA with a loss for the first time in 44 games, but Staley did take notice of the “great atmosphere” at Pauley Pavilion on Sunday. 

“It was a great game, great atmosphere and great opportunity for UCLA to knock us off,” Staley said in the postgame press conference following the Bruins’ 77-62 win. “I thought we did a good job on Betts but we got killed by everybody else.”

As a team, UCLA shot 47% from the field and drilled ten threes while shooting 48% from deep in an efficient outing for the Bruins against the reigning national champion Gamecocks. 

“They hit open looks, contested looks,” Staley said of the Bruins. “They had it going on on both sides of the basketball.”

It was the first time that UCLA head coach Cori Close had ever defeated Staley, it was also the first time in school history that the Bruins defeated South Carolina, bumping UCLA to 1-4 all-time against the Gamecocks.

“We knew we were going to play a really good UCLA team, didn’t anticipate them shooting the way they shot the basketball,” Staley said. “It was beautiful basketball by UCLA. Beautiful. On both sides, I’m on the opposite side of it but you can’t help but to love up on it because it was fluid.” 

UCLA reacts to 77-62 win over #1 South Carolina

A lot of excitement for UCLA!

The energy was all positive for the UCLA Bruins for their postgame press conference on Sunday after their 77-62 win over the defending champs and #1 team in the country, South Carolina.

Bruins’ head coach Cori Close showed respect to the Gamecocks’ program and their legendary head coach Dawn Staley, saying that she’s “set the tone of what women’s basketball excellence should be” with South Carolina dominating the sport over the past decade.

“I thought they were taking shots that they didn’t want to have to take on a pretty consistent basis,” Close said postgame after the Bruins held South Carolina to 36% shooting in the game. “We knew that if we could force them into running halfcourt offense we’d have a really good chance.”

South Carolina amazingly only scored one fastbreak point in the game and scored just 11 points off of UCLA’s 17 turnovers. Even with one of most impressive wins in recent program history, Close still acknowledged that this isn’t March quite yet.

“It’s November 24th. Am I proud of our team? Yes but this is just the beginning,” Close said. “We just can’t get tired of doing things right.”

Sunday’s win was the first time in program history that the Bruins have defeated an AP #1 team in the country, with the Bruins doing so in convincing fashion.

“We all want the same thing at the end of the day,” junior center Lauren Betts said of the team. “It doesn’t matter who’s scoring the most points, at the end of the day we all just want to win.”

UCLA’s Lauren Betts sends direct warning to college basketball after Bruins upset South Carolina

Lauren Betts wants all the smoke.

UCLA’s win over No. 1 ranked South Carolina wasn’t a fluke, and Bruins center Lauren Betts says if you haven’t been paying attention, now would be the time to.

Let’s say the thing. It was not close on Sunday. From the opening tip to the final buzzer, UCLA commanded the floor and had an answer for everything the Gamecocks tried to do. The Bruins beat South Carolina on the boards (41-34), held four starters to under five points, and *checks notes* not a single starter went to the free-throw line. UGLY STUFF.

Furthermore, five UCLA players scored in double figures, including Londynn Jones, who was sensational from the line with five 3-pointers, and star center Lauren Betts, who had 11 points, 14 rebounds, four assists and four blocks. WHEW. Postgame, Betts raved about her team and how proud she was, but she also sent a direct warning to college basketball. “If you’ve been sleeping on UCLA,” Betts said.  “You need to stop right now.”

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