With little to no surprise, Top seeded UCLA handled their business against Long Beach State,102 – 51, at the Walter Pyramid arena, securing their 10th win (10-0) of the season to give head coach, Cori Close, her 297th career win and become UCLA all time winningest women’s basketball coach.
“She doesn’t like to give herself a lot of credit, but she really is an amazing coach and I’m just super grateful to play for you and everything that you’ve done for me, ” Junior transfer Center Lauren Betts said about Coach Close’s milestone achievement.
Long Beach State (5-4) got to celebrate some milestone history too, competing against an outsized, outstanding team whom open the game with a knockout punch in the first few minutes of the game giving the first time host of a No. 1 ranked women’s basketball team their second introduction to another Big 10 league. Not to be overshadowed, Long Beach women’s basketball coach, hall of famer, Joan Bonvicini, received honors during half time for her legendary winning record in 12 seasons.
Meanwhile, Long Beach State headed to their locker room, attempting to figure out a way to come back from down 29-points, 49-20, and how to slow down UCLA’s dominating frontcourt, Betts and Graduate student forward Angela Dugalic.
“It’s hard to simulate that in practice, in terms of their knock down shooters, their patience, their discipline. They’re just a really good, confident team right now,” Long Beach State head coach Amy Wright said.
Offensively, Long Beach State got better the 2nd half and Sophomore forward Jada Crawshaw, got it rolling with buckets from inside the paint and midrange jumpers. Struggling continued on the defensive end for The Beach as no one came close to matching up with 6’7” Betts and 6’4” Dugalic who continued tallying up points, extending Bruin’s lead to 45 points by the end of the 3rd quarter.
“I think it’s just the foundation that Long Beach has built for us,” Crawshaw answered on not giving up despite UCLA height advantage and huge point deficit from beginning to end. “Every time we step in between the lines, we’re always fighting,” Crawshaw added.
Crawshaw carried her team most of the fourth quarter, finishing as the sole double digit scorer, with 19 points. Dugalic and Betts both finished with 22 points apiece and combined for almost half of their team’s 51 rebounds.
“It’s so cool, it’s like a full circle moment,” Betts said of beating her parents’ Alma mater in the arena they once played as basketball and volleyball student- athletes. “We want you to win, but don’t embarrass them,” Betts shared sympathetically about the text messages received from her parents. Both teams kept a heavy rotation with frequent substitutions that resulted in UCLA ending the game with 5 players scoring in double figures.
“Kudos to UCLA. They’re a great team, well balanced, and very deep, and I thought we got better and better as the game went on, it just takes time, “ Coach Wright said.
Crawshaw forced Close to call a 20 second time out mid 4th quarter after exposing weaknesses of UCLA’s defense, leading later to post game recognition for Junior Guards Kiki Rice and Londynn Jones as Close described Jones performance as “winning plays” that don’t show up on any stats sheet.
Close acknowledged coach Wright and Long Beach for providing a great environment that seems to be a collective sentiment felt among other southern Cal collegiate coaches.
“We want to grow this together and that’s really important to us,” Close said.
On a similar note, Coach Wright said,“I think Cori and I’s perspective was, women’s basketball is on such a rise, and it should be shared, but that hasn’t always been. Them coming to us is a big deal.” Wright continued, “USC coming to us last year is a big deal, because it’s highlighting the style of basketball, the level of play in Southern California, and it’s showing it to the entire nation.”
Both teams will be back in action next week before New Year’s, UCLA welcomes Cal Poly to Pauley Pavillion on Monday and Long Beach State welcomes Elon to Walter Pyramid on Thursday.