Londynn Jones escaped with the ball on a fast break. Down eight points in the first quarter, all the shifty guard had to do was score a layup to keep USC at bay amid a JuJu Watkins scoring run. Barreling her way into the paint with too much force, Jones tumbled to the floor, drawing a charging foul.
The play was representative of UCLA’s frustrating start. The Bruins gave up 24 points in the first quarter — tying for the most allowed by the team in a quarter this season. It was beginning to look like an early disaster for coach Cori Close and the Bruins in front of a sold-out crowd of 10,528 at the Galen Center. UCLA’s best in-the-Big Ten perimeter defense struggled as Watkins scorched the Bruins’ guards for six first-half three-pointers.
But that was just the first quarter. The Bruins went on a 14-1 run and trailed only by three points by halftime. The UCLA scoring surge continued in the third quarter, with Lauren Betts scoring nine of her 18 points in the quarter as the Bruins capitalized on a 34-15 run after a 14-point deficit in the first half to take a seven-point lead.
“I really loved our response in the first half,” Close said, “to come back and then to really take control of the game in the third [quarter].”
Close needed more of that Bruins magic — the same that helped them stay undefeated and earn their No. 1 ranking — to close Thursday’s game. Instead, she watched as late-game lapses doomed UCLA to a 71-60 loss. It was the Bruins’ first loss, one that threatens their top ranking.
Lapses from the Bruins (23-1, 11-1 Big Ten) on defense: giving up 24 points in the first and fourth quarters while making just two of their final 19 shots.
“Ultimately I got to take responsibility,” Close said. “I got to get us ready for that, and that would be my job to get us extremely fatigued in practice.”
UCLA’s leading scorer struggled in crunch time: Betts missed all three of her fourth-quarter shots — two of which Watkins swatted away on her way to a career-high eight blocks.
“I gotta be better, period,” said Betts, who finished five of 13 from the field, grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds and played a team-high 37 minutes.
USC’s game plan worked on Betts. The Trojans (22-2, 12-1) locked up the 6-foot-7, Naismith College Player of the Year candidate in the interior and mixed and matched bigs — Clarice Akunwafo, Rayah Marshall and Kiki Iriafen — on defense to muck up Betts’ rhythm in the paint. It worked in the first half. Betts had just nine points at the break, with five coming from the charity stripe.
And it worked again in the fourth quarter, leaving UCLA hapless as it tried to get the ball inside to Betts and Janiah Barker before Barker fouled out with 2:07 remaining.
“It’s just a clinic in post-defense,” said USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb, emphasizing Akunwafo’s contributions. “We talked about not letting Betts get to her spots.”
UCLA also struggled with turnovers. The Trojans scored 21 points off Bruins turnovers.
A major turning point came with under four minutes left when USC freshman guard Kennedy Smith clapped in Kiki Rice’s face as she crossed half-court, raising the crowd noise exponentially in Galen Center. Moments later, Akunwafo’s strip-steal led to an Iriafen layup, helping push the Trojans’ lead to five.
“We didn’t take care of the ball,” said Rice, who finished with 15 points. “They scored a lot off of our turnovers, which we need to clean up. I think the biggest thing is the fourth quarter and how we let them dominate us.”
Close took pleasure in that the schedule doesn’t get easier for the Bruins. UCLA faces No. 22 Michigan State at Pauley Pavilion on Sunday and Illinois on Feb. 20 before heading off for a two-game Big Ten trip.
“What these losses painfully teach us is where we have laxed and where we got our butts beat,” Close said.
“There’s no time to be in the pity pond.”
