No. 1 UCLA women beat No. 8 Ohio State, set program-record win streak
LOS ANGELES — The top-ranked UCLA women’s basketball team took control in the fourth quarter to beat No. 8 Ohio State, 65-52, and set a program record with its 22nd consecutive win on Wednesday night at Pauley Pavilion.
UCLA (22-0 overall, 10-0 Big Ten), which remains the only unbeaten team in Division I, eclipsed a 21-game win streak set during the 1977-78 season.
“We needed a game like that,” UCLA coach Cori Close said. “Chaos, disappointment. We looked tired at times and we had to find a way to buckle down and do it with toughness and rebounding and defense. I’m thankful for a team that’s willing to win gritty and not pretty.”
The Buckeyes’ Elsa Lemmilä, a 6-foot-6 freshman center, created an interesting one-on-one matchup with UCLA’s 6-7 Lauren Betts, but the Bruins’ center was able to use her athleticism to score 19 points to go with 14 rebounds and three blocked shots. It was her 12th double-double of the season.
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Gabriela Jaquez added 17 points, Kiki Rice scored 12 points and Angela Dugalic pulled down 10 rebounds.
UCLA outrebounded Ohio State (20-1, 9-1) by a wide margin (49-33), but a season-high 23 turnovers hurt the Bruins.
“We were frustrated with our turnovers and we let it affect our purpose and talk and transition D,” Close said. “I didn’t think it was that they got steal-scores, it’s that we were playing one-on-one defense instead of team transition defense, building our wall, talking about right-hand drivers, who are the shooters. How do we help each other and rotate? And that’s tough to do against a team like that.”
UCLA was visibly frustrated in the fourth quarter, as Ohio State diligently chipped away to tie the score at 44-all just 34 seconds into the period. The Bruins countered with a 19-1 run that included nine points from Jaquez. The Bruins outrebounded Ohio State 13-2 in the fourth, with Jaquez grabbing three of her six.
“(Practice) is really tough every day,” Betts said. “Once it happened in this game, we were kind of ready for it. We hold each other accountable and sometimes it’s hard, but we just take it and just move on. And I think that poise is just what we work on every single day.”
A Betts layup gave UCLA a five-point lead, then a Jaquez layup, a Rice steal and jumper and a Janiah Barker jumper made it 56-45 with 5:47 left. Jaquez added a layup off an offensive rebound, then a 3-pointer and another layup to complete the surge for a 63-45 lead with 3:18 left.
UCLA looked as though it could pull away from the Buckeyes when Betts made a layup in the first 30 seconds of the second quarter to give the Bruins a 20-6 lead. Their timing and passing were off, however, which limited the offense.
Rice missed a teammate with a pass but was able to grab a steal almost immediately afterward to make a layup. It wasn’t the prettiest play, but UCLA put together an 8-2 run for a 30-24 lead at halftime.
“Ohio State’s a really good defensive team,” Jaquez said. “In the first half, we were playing their game and they won the style of play. Coming out in the second half, we just really needed to reset.”
The Bruins struggled to fully separate themselves to begin the second half. The third-quarter scoring run that has become a signature part of UCLA’s offense was missing and the turnovers kept on coming.
A series of long passes from Elina Aarnisalo to Betts to Jaquez and another long pass from Barker to Jaquez resulted in back-to-back layups and a 38-31 lead with 4:30 left in the third quarter.
UCLA used speed to combat Ohio State’s press defense and rushed forward any time there was open space. The Buckeyes effectively defended for most of the first quarter and scored eight points off of UCLA’s eight turnovers in the period.
“Credit to Ohio State,” Close said. “That’s the first team that made us play that way. And they really were the more aggressive team for a long time but it forced us to go to another level of toughness to get the win.”
The Bruins gained a two-point edge at the end of the frame after Angela Dugalić tied the score at 16-all. Ohio State shot 0 for 5 and couldn’t manufacture a point for the final 2:47.
Betts had 13 points and 10 rebounds in the first half, the first time in the junior’s career she had a double-double by halftime.
Jaloni Cambridge had 21 points to lead the Buckeyes, who shot a season-worst 29.4% from the field. Cotie McMahon added 14 points.
“Going into this game, you know they’re the number one team in the country and it’s exciting,” McMahon said. “This was the first time everybody was on the same page, locked in and just ready to play. We just fell short. Our effort was not a problem in this game.”
UP NEXT
UCLA plays at Oregon on Sunday at 1 p.m. before traveling to the Galen Center to take on USC next Thursday (Feb. 13) at 7 p.m.