Westwood, CA- UCLA women’s basketball team closed the game at Pauley Pavilion on Thursday night, pretty much how they started including an exceptional fourth quarter shutout led by Returning Sophomore Veteran, Sienna Betts, who started and finished her game with a basket to blowout UC Irvine, 78-42 while her team bears small resemblance to how their football team started this season.
“I’ve learned a lot from him [UCLA’s Football Head Coach Bob Chesney]. I showed a video to our team about them and I have done it consistently. I talked to him on the phone today and he’s become a really good friend…,” Coach Close said to fi360news. “I’ve showed our team that we learned from them is they’re doing it by the power of the pack. It’s not superstars. It’s how connected they are. It’s how purposeful they are. It’s how disciplined they are. And that’s their calling card. And we saw another team do that, the Valkyries, right?… Natalie Nakase, go Bruins led them so well. But I think similarly to what we’re seeing in our football and I’m really trying to get our team to buy into that that we are not going to win by one person’s saying I’m going to put you on my back today. It has to be a connected, collective effort.”
Bruins broke out in the first quarter after Betts scored the first of her 17 points from tipoff before going on a 11-2 run to force a timeout by UC Irvine with 5:58 remaining in the game. It was Betts second consecutive season game scoring her team’s first points.
“I feel like I’ve always just kind of preferred playing at a slower pace. So when I’m out there, I like slowing it down and let’s do half-court offense,” Betts said to fi360news during postgame presser. “I mean it’s normal for games like this when they’re pressing for us to want to go out and just start going fast. And I think just if I notice and am out there to be able to just communicate with my teammates…”
UCLA’s ball pressure was visible early as well led by KK Bransford causing a couple of loose balls that resulted into two steals in the first quarter of her four for the game to help her team have a 23-8 advantage.
Fifth year Senior Forward Timea Gardiner bounced back to form with her shooting, closing the first and opening the second quarter with two elbow range jumpers. Gardiner continued with the hot hand, hitting back-to-back triples to lead her team in scoring at the half with 10 points, 42-21 UCLA.
“Her nickname is trigger T, and she found that trigger boy…I just said, “You got to realize when you’re in that run, but then you feel yourself get a little fatigued, then you got to just slow down,” UCLA Head Coach Cori Close said. “I cannot put an exclamation mark on how important she is to our team enough. Like, it is so huge. It’s her competitive spirit. It’s her mind for the game. It’s her ability to stretch defenses with her way she shoots the ball. It’s her leadership. It’s huge for us.”
Third quarter Bransford turned up her intensity to pick up from her first quarter efforts after a few casual mistakes despite Anteaters valiant attempt to come back after committing early turnovers to begin second half.
Bruins dialed in on defense with 11 team steals, forcing 20 turnovers and dominating the boards, 50-34. UC Irvine was led by Delaney White’s 12 points despite her team scoring zero in the fourth quarter and shooting 23.7% from the field.
UCLA united front displayed this game with four players in double figures including Betts’ 17 off 8-of-10 shooting. Junior Guard Elina Aarnisalo chipped in 14 points and put on a full demonstration of her elite court vision with five assists along with five rebounds. Gardiner and Bransford added 12 and 10 points, respectively to go along with five and four rebounds, respectively.
Bruins defense slowed down by the third quarter as the Anteaters found their rhythm and scored their most points in a quarter before going silent in the fourth. UCLA recalibrated themselves in the final quarter and got back to their pressurized defense holding UCI to a 36 point advantage for the remainder of the game.
“I think for me, pressure is something that I always try to focus on especially on the defensive end,” Bransford said to fi360news. “Coach Cori has been really challenging me to really get up in pressure and it’s something that I’m not used to and so being able to just work on that… so just believing in her vision and what she’s challenging me with and I think that just buying into that in the third quarter especially really helped.”
UCLA continues play at home, returning to Pauley Pavilion on November 12 against Arizona for a 7:30 pm PT on the Big Ten Network.