{"id":534316,"date":"2026-01-22T10:02:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T10:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/534316\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T10:02:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T10:02:17","slug":"ucla-women-dominate-in-near-50-point-rout-of-purdue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/534316\/","title":{"rendered":"UCLA women dominate in near 50-point rout of Purdue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Coming off Sunday\u2019s 30-point win over then-No. 12 Maryland \u2014 UCLA\u2019s largest margin of victory over a top-15 team since 1992 \u2014 it would have been easy for the Bruins<\/a> to take unranked Purdue lightly.<\/p>\n

Instead, the UCLA women played with the intensity and focus characteristic of an NCAA tournament game, dominating from start to finish in a 96-48 triumph<\/a> Wednesday night at Pauley Pavilion.<\/p>\n

The third-ranked Bruins (18-1 overall, 8-0 in Big Ten<\/a>) won for the 12th straight time and are more than halfway to tying the program record of 23 in a row set last year. The 48-point win marked the sixth straight by 18 points or more as the Bruins moved out of a tie with Iowa for sole possession of first place in the conference.<\/p>\n

All five starters scored in double figures. Gabriela Jaquez led the way with 25 points on 10-for-11 shooting, Lauren Betts had 16 points and 10 rebounds, Kiki Rice and Charlisse Leger-Walker each added 15 points and Gianna Kneepkens had 14.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scoring runs we had are a result of a season high in deflections,\u201d said coach Cori Close, whose team made 13 three-pointers and had a 32-8 advantage in points off turnovers. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t our best game. I\u2019m proud of where we\u2019re going, but we have a lot of growing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rice had 15 points and five rebounds over the first two quarters, going eight for eight from the free-throw line, and Kneepkens had 11, making three of four three-pointers, as the Bruins held a commanding 46-20 lead at intermission, the fewest points UCLA has given up in a first half since holding Cal Poly to 16 on Dec. 16.<\/p>\n

UCLA grew the margin to 30 by the end of the third quarter and went on a 16-0 run for almost six minutes in the fourth quarter to stay perfect on its home floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud of our guards for shooting those threes and making them,\u201d Betts said. \u201cIt\u2019s so hard for other teams to guard us when we\u2019re hitting from the perimeter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eight Big Ten schools are in this week\u2019s Associated Press Top 25 poll: No. 3 UCLA, No. 7 Michigan, No. 10 Iowa, No. 12 Ohio State, No. 13 Michigan State, No. 15 Maryland, No. 24 Nebraska and No. 25 Washington. Only the Southeastern Conference has more with nine.<\/p>\n

\u201cRankings don\u2019t mean that much to us,\u201d Betts said. \u201cWe have our own standard and try to compete at our highest level every time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jaquez was three for three from long range and credited Betts with giving her open looks.<\/p>\n

\u201cLauren is a great passer and gets me good shots,\u201d said Jaquez, who was charged with her third personal late in the first half. \u201cI switched my focus at halftime and decided I wasn\u2019t going to foul. When you get in a rhythm and see the ball go in the basket a couple times, it gives you the confidence to keep shooting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bruins donned throwback jerseys, an homage to UCLA\u2019s 1977-78 championship squad from its days in the Assn. for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, and showed why a second national title is a possibility come April if the team continues to perform at its present level.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to honor the players and teams who came before us,\u201d Close said. \u201cMore importantly, we want to play in a way that honors them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nya Smith scored 14 points, Avery Gordon had 13 and Tara Daye had 10 for the Boilermakers (10-9, 2-6), who lost their third consecutive meeting with UCLA and fell to 2-4 all time against the Bruins.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you play defense, your offense is a whole lot easier,\u201d Close said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t follow the scouting report and take away what they\u2019re good at, they\u2019re going to do what they\u2019re good at. We let that happen a few too many times tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Betts continues to encourage her sister Sienna to shoot. The freshman forward had six points in 17 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s not going to get all the same looks that she did in high school,\u201d Lauren said. \u201cThat\u2019s OK. She\u2019s good enough to be on this team and she will get more comfortable the more she plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

UCLA opens a two-game trip Sunday at Northwestern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coming off Sunday\u2019s 30-point win over then-No. 12 Maryland \u2014 UCLA\u2019s largest margin of victory over a top-15…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":534317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[75664,32072,1582,276,93427,93430,2961,23245,224,5337,37476,449,4369,15189,24566,236596,219559,236597,173092,14164],"class_list":{"0":"post-534316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-basketball-team","9":"tag-bruins","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-gabriela-jaquez","13":"tag-kiki-rice","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-lauren-betts","16":"tag-los-angeles","17":"tag-losangeles","18":"tag-opponent","19":"tag-point","20":"tag-program","21":"tag-purdue","22":"tag-rebound","23":"tag-rout","24":"tag-then-no","25":"tag-throwback-jersey","26":"tag-ucla-woman","27":"tag-way"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}