Two games into the season, this year’s UCLA women’s basketball team is already in dominating form despite losing the team’s six best players from last season.
Tonight, the Bruins blew past the UC Irvine Anteaters, 78-42. Much like we saw so often last season, this game was over as soon as UCLA scored. Just 12 seconds into the game, Sienna Betts hit a jumper which put the Bruins ahead, 2-0. From there, UCLA just increased their margin of victory, with the final score giving the Bruins a 36-point advantage.
After Betts’ bucket, Elina Aarnisalo hit for a three which stretched the lead to 5-0, and Donavyn Hunter made it 7-0 less than two minutes into the game. The Bruins would finish the first quarter with a 23-8 lead.
The second quarter wasn’t quite so dominating, but the Bruins still outscored the Anteaters 19-13 and UCLA had a 42-21 lead at the break.
The third quarter was the worst quarter of the game for the Bruins. Not only did UCI’s 21 points nearly match UCLA’s 22 points, but the Anteaters also pieced together a 10-point run in a very short minute and thirty-six seconds.
After the game, Coach Close admitted that she should have called a timeout sooner to try to stop the run. “I let that run go,” Close said. “I need to use my timeout quicker. I think we were obviously having a hard time in that run. I had let a nine-zero run go, and so I think I could have done a better job in that third quarter, too.”
The good news is that UCLA finished with a much stronger fourth quarter. UCLA kept UCI scoreless in the final frame.
Overall, Close is working right now to build discipline on the team. “I’m trying to find a balance of holding the right people accountable for the right things,” she said after the game. “My big deal was executing the scout.”
“I’m choosing right now to try to develop some accountability and habits,” she added.
With so many new players seeing so many minutes, that’s understandable at this point in the season.
Overall, Sienna Betts led the Bruins with a career-high 17 points while Elina Aarnisalo added 14 as well. Newcomer Addy Brown led the team with eight rebounds while Bonnie Deas pulled down seven despite only playing 17 minutes. Aarnisalo, Donavyn Hunter and Brown each had five assists.
UCLA will be without Aarnisalo for their next two games as she will be off playing with the Finnish national team for their Olympic qualifiers.
The Bruins are off until next Thursday when they host Arizona at Pauley Pavilion. Game time is set for a 7:30 pm PT tip-off and the game will be televised on Big Ten Network.
Go Bruins!!!
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