Westwood, CA- No. 2 UCLA ruined Rutgers Associate Head Coach Shannon LeBeauf’s return to Pauley Pavilion on Wednesday against her former team with a 40-point blowout, 86-46 after presenting her with 2025 Final Four rings.
“Shannon, I remember when she called me,” UCLA Head Coach Cori Close said. “I remember the day I remember where I was…I’ve literally known
Shannon since she was in high school and I remember Pam said to me, “Man, if you could get Shannon to come here, like I recruited her when I was assistant here. She went to Iowa. Then Nikki Caldwell Fargas recruited
her. She said no… I said, “Well, funny. You should call.” Just having her come and come alongside and really partner in the mission of this program has been one of my greatest joys…And so it’s our honor to give her the honor back that she gave to us for so long.”
While Scarlet Knights cheered on their current coach during her pre game recognition her former team unleashed a brutal balanced attack with five players scoring double digits led by Senior KiKi Rice’s 17 points and seven rebounds. Senior Gabriela Jacquez added 14 points, three rebounds, and two assists. Senior Lauren Betts chipped in 11 points off efficient shooting, going a perfect 5-for-5 from the field in under 14 minutes. Freshman Sienna Betts also finished with 11 points and four rebounds. Graduate Transfer Charlisse Leger-Walker scored 11 points too along with dishing seven dimes, five steals, and four rebounds.
“Charlisse Leger-Walker, I thought really led the way in terms of building urgency and trying to play to a standard even when the score didn’t reflect that,” coach Close said. “I think our team as a whole, the next piece of discipline that we need to grab is learning how to be more consistent in that venture. We just haven’t proved against teams that are not at our caliber from a talent perspective that we can put 40 minutes of disciplined basketball together and play to our standards on a consistent basis and that’s what we got to grab next.”
UCLA jumped out to 12-3 lead after Rutgers was first to put points on the scoreboard with a three-pointer off the backboard by Faith Blackstone. Rutgers then went cold for their next several shot attempts while UCLA went on their 12-0 run before forcing Rutgers to call a timeout.
The play that led for a pause in the game came courtesy of a highlight hesitation move by Rice in a delayed transition fast break resulting in a nifty layup. Followed by a quick three pointer that led to Rutgers Head Coach, Coquese Washington, unable to watch anymore her team slip into abyss.
“We’ve only had one quarter with our expected lineup healthy and playing, ”Coach Washington said. “What this season is about for Sid to grow through adversity…my guiding principle is Philippians 4:13, I can do all things…”
Talking to her team during the timeout was not enough once they return to the battlefield as the bleeding continued by UCLA’s on-slaughter defense.
Right out of the timeout, the Lady Bruins came up with a defensive stop converted into a deep range triple by freshman Lena Bilić from Leger-Walker’s fancy pass. Once the crowd began their chants, Rutgers responded with a three-pointer to silence the home crowd noise briefly and snap their nearly seven minutes scoring drought – the Scarlet Knights went 1 of 13 ending the first period with UCLA up 26-6.
Scarlet Knights gained some much-needed momentum and was able to swing it to their advantage most of the second quarter, slowing down the Lady Bruins to only score half of what they scored previous period while nearly scoring over double than the first quarter output to go into halftime, 40-19.
“Like our mindset needs to be consistent regardless of who we’re playing,” Rice said. “So whether it’s Penn State, Rutgers, Michigan, USC, like throughout regardless of the team, regardless of the record, we need to come out with the same intensity, treat
each moment the same, and that way we’ll be ready for every single moment. And I think we got to fight for the consistency in that area. That’s still an area we need to grow in, but you
know, we’ll be ready for these games.”
Rutgers demonstrated glimmers of hope on the defensive end, causing UCLA to enter a scoring drought for over three minutes. Still, Jaquez finished the first half with 12 points and three rebounds. Rice added nine points.
Zachara Perkins scored the first points to open the second half for Rutgers. Laure Betts responded and made the first basket for the Bruins drawing the foul for a completed three-point play. UCLA then went on another scoring tangent in their next four possessions to seize a 15-3 run.
Rice and Betts scored seven points apiece leading their team’s third quarter domination quest. Kneepkens and Leger-Walker added five apiece, giving UCLA that consistent balanced offensive attack to comfortably hold a 68-27 lead closing out the quarter.
Bruins opened the fourth with two players, going on solo runs, both Betts and Dugalic scoring back-to-back baskets to extend the Bruins lead. UCLA then took it up another gear, reaching their largest lead of game at 43 points off a Bilić three, her second one for the night, giving UCLA an “edge and lita,” 80-37 beatdown.
“My number one priority was subbing intentionally for their bodies,” coach Close said. “We have a lot of people, our trainer had come to me ahead of time and was like, “Hey, these are where our loads are, this is what you know and our AP team does a great job of keeping me informed and looking at the data and reading the loads and so I just really was trying to protect and balance minutes out.”
UCLA dominated in the paint with 44 points while shooing 56 percent from the field, plus out-rebounding Rutgers more than doubling their 18 with 41, locking up 13 steals and distributing 25 assists despite turning over the ball 13 times where Coach Close had to reiterate on numerous occasions to her team to tidy their offense.
Transfer Lauryn Swann led the Scarlet Knights with 14 points.
UCLA (22-1, 12-0 BIG) will travel to Ann Arbor, Michigan, on February 8th for a major Big 10 top-10 matchup against the No. 8 Michigan Wolverines on Sunday. Tip-off is set for 12 p.m. PT and will be broadcast on FOX.
