Washington HUskies women’s basketball

Cori Close rips Bruins’ effort against Washington in 73-62 win

Honest take here.

Even though the No.1 ranked UCLA Bruins began Big Ten conference play with a win last week over Washington 73-62 on the road, you wouldn’t have guessed that during head coach’s Cori Close media availability on Friday.

“We did not play as well as we needed to and everything is just excuses if you can’t show up with your attitude, your effort and your concentration,” Close said. “Your feelings can’t dictate behaviors.”

UCLA was outrebounded for the first time all year and allowed 24 points to the Huskies during the third quarter of Sunday’s game.

Despite leaving Seattle with the win, it’s clear that Close wants the Bruins to sharpen their game during their three weeks between Big Ten games, with the Bruins not returning to conference action until Sunday, December 29th at home against Nebraska.

“Credit to Washington, they’re a really good team. We have a lot of respect for them but we did not give our best effort,” Close said. “We’ve got to turn that around immediately.”

UCLA remains undefeated at 10-0 entering Sunday’s road game against Long Beach State.

Bruins out-rebounded for first time all season in win over Washington

A bittersweet stat.

For the first time all season the UCLA women’s basketball team was out-rebounded on Sunday against Washington in UCLA’s 73-62 win in the Big Ten conference opener.

It’s a surprising outcome that the Bruins were outworked on the boards 32-30 by the Huskies considering UCLA has the third highest rebounding margin this season. The 30 rebounds is a significant drop-off from their season average of 46.3 a game, which is the fifth highest average in the country.

“They were the first team that outrebounded us all year,” Bruins’ coach Cori Close pointed out in the postgame press conference Sunday. “I thought they outhustled us in some ways so I really want to give credit to them and how they played. I thought they played closer to their identity, than we did to ours.”

Junior guard Gabriela Jaquez led UCLA with seven rebounds, while junior center Lauren Betts hauled in just three rebounds while averaging 10.0 per game this season.

“Credit to their 1-4’s that were coming from long distances and really out-hustling us for the ball and out-competing us for rebounds.” Close said of Washington’s rebounding efforts.

Despite standing just at 5’11”, Washington’s guard Hannah Stines grabbed a game-high eight rebounds against the Bruins.

UCLA will have to wait till Saturday for another chance to put together a better performance rebounding the basketball, when the Bruins will travel to Long Beach State as they look to improve to 10-0.

UCLA open Big Ten play with 73-62 win over Washington

A good start to Big Ten play.

The UCLA Bruins survived their Big Ten conference opener on Sunday against the Washington Huskies with a 73-62 win on the road.

UCLA’s stars showed up for the win on Sunday, junior center Lauren Betts scored 23 points and two blocks but only three rebounds, down from her season average of 10.9. Junior guard Kiki Rice had another strong showing, with 18 points, five assists and four rebounds. In the last three games Rice has averaged 18 points per game after having that total sit at 8.5 in her first two games of the season.

Junior guard Gabriela Jaquez got another chance in the Bruins starting lineup and again provided a spark with Bruins, scoring 11 points off of 5-9 shooting in 36 minutes which tied Rice for the team high.

The Bruins shot a tremendous 54% from the field, doing almost all of their work inside the three point line, taking just 12 threes and knocking down four of them. Not only did they not shoot threes, the Bruins also didn’t get to the free throw line with much regularity against Washington, going 5-7 from the line.

UCLA led by ten at halftime at 35-25 but the Huskies kept pace with the Bruins in the third quarter, trailing just 57-49 entering the fourth. Washington trimmed the lead down to five points with just over four minutes remaining but the Bruins answered with a run to close out the game and move to 9-0.

The Bruins will look to move to 10-0 next Saturday on the road against Long Beach State, not resuming Big Ten play until December 29th against Nebraska.

UCLA Bruins womens basketball misses out on Brynn McGaughy

UCLA misses out…

The UCLA Bruins women’s basketball team will not be adding five-star recruit Brynn McGaughy to their roster for the 2024-2025 season.

According to a report from Dushawn London, from 247 Sports, she has elected to play her college basketball at Washington. She chose Washington over such programs as UCLA, Iowa, Duke and Utah.

The 6’3 forward is from the state of Washington, and will now play for head coach Tina Langley. The Huskies went 16-15 a season also. McGaughey had to say about her decision:

“I think the main thing for me was the culture and people there, rheir vision for me is really good and the impact I can make when I get there my freshman year will be great. I fit in really good and they feel like family.”

Her team at Colfax won the district championship, behind her 37 points. She also added 24 rebounds and 6 blocks in the game. In her sophomore season, she helped her team to the state quarterfinals.