Two days after UCLA women’s basketball coach Cori Close put her players through one of their most grueling practices all season, the team responded with a gritty effort, doing a lot of the little things right to produce a big 97-67 victory over No. 12 Maryland on Sunday afternoon before 8,721 fans at Pauley Pavilion.
The third-ranked Bruins (17-1 overall, 7-0 Big Ten) used a balanced attack. Gabriela Jaquez set the pace with 22 points (making 10 of 13 shots) while Charlisse Leger-Walker added 17 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.
“The story of this game was really our depth and our selflessness,” Close said. “Lauren Betts was spectacular today. It won’t show on the stat sheet but the way she handled double and triple teams, we got so many threes. I celebrate the way we won. We made winning plays, from boxing out, to forcing an extra rotation … the list goes on and on.”
Gianna Kneepkens had 16 points, Angela Dugalic had 12, Lauren Betts had 11 points and five blocks, younger sister Sienna Betts added nine points and Kiki Rice dished out six assists.
Leger-Walker wowed the crowd with a no-look behind-the-back pass to Lauren Betts for a basket in the fourth quarter.
“I know Lauren’s an amazing cutter,” Leger-Walker said. “I saw her cut from the weak side, we made eye contact, two people came to me and I passed it to her. On our team you have to be thinking all the time.”
It took UCLA 11 seconds to take the lead it would never relinquish. Betts won the opening tip and Leger-Walker passed to Jaquez for an uncontested layup that got the Bruins off to the fast start their coach desired. Betts’ layup made it 13-4 at the 5:25 mark. The Terrapins pulled to within two but Leger-Walker’s three got the margin to eight by the end of the first quarter.
UCLA led by as many as 15 points in the second quarter and headed into the locker room up 47-35, but Close was not entirely satisfied. “We need to do a better job switching and communicating on defense. We’re giving up way too many threes. Offensively we’ve been pretty efficient.”
A turnaround jumper by Jaquez capped a 10-2 run to open the second half. A layup by Dugalic made it 71-43 with 1:18 left in the third quarter.
“It’s easy to be complacent and not fight for every possession, but our coaches do a good job holding the standard,” Leger-Walker added. “We’ve also got lots of leadership on this team and when you combine that with the talent we have you can play really fun basketball.”
The Bruins had a decisive 46-24 advantage in the rebounding battle, had 25 second-chance points and outscored Maryland 48-24 in the paint.
“We were minus-22 on the glass, that’s their strength and they made us pay,” Maryland coach Brenda Frese said. “We have five freshmen, they have more experience, they play the right way, they can space the floor and they make it really difficult for you. They’re ranked in the top four for a reason.”
The Bruins used their height advantage to record their seventh win against a ranked opponent this season. They won their third straight against Maryland, evening the all-time series at 5-5. The schools met in the AIAW championship game in 1978 and UCLA prevailed 90-74 for its first and only national title.
Oluchi Okananwa scored 25 points to pace the Terrapins (17-3, 5-3), who were coming off a 62-55 win Thursday at USC.
“In this program we’re built on effort plays, getting extra possessions that can make a difference at the end of a game,” Kneepkens said. “Focusing on that I don’t worry as much about making shots. It’s hard for teams to scout us, they have to pick their poison. We have so many players who can score.”
UCLA remains hot on the heels of top-ranked and undefeated Connecticut (which was idle Sunday) and No. 2 South Carolina, which crushed Coppin State 90-48 two hours before the Bruins took the court. The Bruins have won 11 in a row since their only loss to No. 4 Texas on Nov. 26 in Las Vegas.
