UCLA women’s basketball crushes Maryland for its 11th straight win
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 dogged effort, doing a lot of little things to produce a big 97-67 victory over No. 12 Maryland Sunday afternoon in front of 8,721 fans at Pauley Pavilion.
The third-place Bruins (17-1 overall, 7-0 Big Ten) used a balanced attack. Gabriela Jaquez set the tone with 22 points (making 10 of 13 shots) while Charlisse Leger-Walker added 17 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.
“The story of that game was really our depth and our unselfishness,” 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 path we won. We’ve made winning plays, from boxing out to forcing an extra turnover…the list goes on and on.
Gianna Kneepkens had 16 points, Angela Dugalic 12, Lauren Betts 11 points and five blocks, her 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 is an amazing cutter,” Leger-Walker said. “I saw her cut from the weak side, we made eye contact, two people came up to me and I passed it to her. On our team, you have to think all the time.”
It took UCLA 11 seconds to take the lead it would never relinquish. Betts won the first tip and Leger-Walker passed to Jaquez for an uncontested layup that gave the Bruins the fast start their coach desired. Betts’ layup made it 13-4 at the 5:25 mark. The Terrapins got within two, but Leger-Walker’s three pushed the lead to eight by the end of the first quarter.
UCLA led by 15 points in the second quarter and went into the locker room with a 47-35 lead, but Close wasn’t entirely satisfied. “We need to do a better job of switching and communicating on defense. We give up way too many threes. Offensively, we’ve been pretty effective.”
A turnaround by Jaquez capped a 10-2 run to open the second half. A Dugalic layup 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 maintaining the standard,” Leger-Walker added. “We also have a lot of leadership on this team and when you combine that with the talent we have, you can play some really fun basketball.”
The Bruins had a commanding 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 court 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 earned their third straight victory against Maryland, tying the all-time series at 5-5. The schools met in the 1978 AIAW championship game and UCLA won 90-74 for its first and only national title.
Oluchi Okananwa scored 25 points to set the tone for the Terrapins (17-3, 5-3), who were coming off a 62-55 victory Thursday at USC.
“In this program, we are built on effort plays, getting extra possessions that can make the difference at the end of a game,” Kneepkens said. “Focusing on that, I don’t worry so much about making shots. It’s hard for teams to spot us, they have to pick their poison. We have so many players who can score.”
UCLA remains on the heels of first-ranked and undefeated Connecticut (which was inactive Sunday) and No. 2 South Carolina, which crushed Coppin State 90-48 two hours before the Bruins took the field. The Bruins have won 11 straight since their lone loss to No. 4 Texas on Nov. 26 in Las Vegas.
