{"id":689223,"date":"2026-03-29T02:33:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T02:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/689223\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T02:33:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T02:33:45","slug":"how-charlisse-leger-walker-gianna-kneepkens-elevated-ucla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/689223\/","title":{"rendered":"How Charlisse Leger-Walker, Gianna Kneepkens elevated UCLA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SACRAMENTO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0While the UCLA<\/a> women\u2019s basketball team has a veteran roster that was in this exact position a season ago, the Bruins have an entirely different vibe during their current postseason run.<\/p>\n

The No. 1-seed Bruins (34-1) will face No. 3-seed Duke (27-8) in the Elite Eight on Sunday for the chance to go back to the Final Four a year after UCLA beat Louisiana State to reach the Final Four<\/a> before immediately suffering a blowout loss to eventual national champion UConn<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This year, they expect something different, in large part because of an upgraded starting lineup.<\/p>\n

A tangible difference is the addition of Charlisse Leger-Walker<\/a> and Gianna Kneepkens. Each was the top scorer on their former squads \u2014 Washington State and Utah, respectively \u2014 and have taken on drastically different roles as arguably the fourth and fifth pieces of this Bruins team.<\/p>\n

\"Charlisse <\/p>\n

Charlisse Leger-Walker hits a reverse layup in front of Minnesota\u2019s Grace Grocholski during the tournament on Friday in Sacramento.<\/p>\n

(Eric Thayer\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s huge we have them,\u201d said senior Gabriela Jaquez<\/a>, who has spent her entire NCAA career with the Bruins. \u201cThey\u2019re perfect fits here. Charlisse as a point guard has been great, and then just being a guard out there, a ready shooter, doing whatever we need, and obviously them being able to defend is really great for our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the Cougars, Leger-Walker averaged double-digit scoring and more than 10 shots per game in every season. With the Bruins, her production has dropped to 8.7 points per game on 7.1 shots.<\/p>\n

Where she has improved, though, is a career-high 5.7 assists per contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look at the talent we have, especially on the offensive end, there are a lot of times where I don\u2019t have to shoot and force some of the shots that I would have to back at Washington State,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve always been able to facilitate and be that connector, but this is the role I am needed in the most here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kneepkens was the Utes\u2019 top shooting option and Pac-12 freshman of the year. There, she was relied on as the team\u2019s top three-point shooter, and after Alissa Pili left, their top scorer overall.<\/p>\n

During her graduate season, she has taken a significant reduction in shots per game, going from 12.3 field goals per game to 9.4.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it tells you what their \u2018why\u2019 is, what their purpose is, why they came here,\u201d UCLA coach Cori Close<\/a> said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t to get their own stats. It was to be a part of something bigger than themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a night where neither of them did much shooting against Minnesota, though, it was their defensive length that made a significant difference against a physical Golden Gophers team. It was the kind of defense they could not have played a year ago with Londynn Jones<\/a>, who transferred to USC<\/a>, in the spot Leger-Walker now occupies and Angela Dugalic starting rather than providing invaluable depth coming off the bench.<\/p>\n

\"UCLA <\/p>\n

UCLA guard Gianna Kneepkens dribbles under pressure from Oklahoma State forward Achol Akot against the Oklahoma State during an NCAA tournament game at Pauley Pavilion on March 23.<\/p>\n

(Ronaldo Bolanos\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Offensively, Leger-Walker\u2019s presence has given the Bruins more options to score from throughout the floor. Known as a three-point threat at Washington State, she needs to be guarded on the perimeter but also not be left to connect to other open players.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think Charlisse, specifically, is one of the best processing point guards I\u2019ve ever been around,\u201d Close said. \u201cHer ability to understand how rotations are happening in the second line, what\u2019s the next play and if she makes one mistake, boy, she\u2019s not making it a second time. … Having Charlisse on our team has freed Kiki [Rice]<\/a> up in some ways and vice versa. So that\u2019s been really fun to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rice has played more of a shooting guard role this season with Leger-Walker taking over at point guard, which has opened her up to shoot more and drive to the hoop without facilitating as often.<\/p>\n

That freedom has given Rice her best offense season yet.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Leger-Walker\u2019s] basketball IQ is insane,\u201d Rice said. \u201cShe gets buckets, she defends super well, she does it all for us. She\u2019s selfless, and she kind of knows when to take over. I\u2019m grateful we\u2019ve had her this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Close said that Kneepkens played one of her best defensive games in the win over Minnesota, but that her length playing as a wing has opened up the UCLA defense to guard the perimeter all season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just learning to play with great players,\u201d Kneepkens said. \u201cIf that\u2019s finding them when they\u2019re open, then I\u2019ll do that. Or if I need to take my shot, I\u2019ll do that too.\u201d<\/p>\n

UCLA\u2019s biggest wins have featured dominant performances from Lauren Betts and generally, its other bigs \u2014 Sienna Betts and Dugalic \u2014 playing at their best.<\/p>\n

But the true depth of the Bruins has come from having long guards who can defend and change up what they need to do in any given matchup. They might be the difference going into the toughest parts of the tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing to a program also where you are surrounded by elite players, and at the end of the day we want to win and be a part of a program that can do that,\u201d Leger-Walker said. \u201cWhatever that role is that we have to adjust to throughout the season, I think, we really bought into that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SACRAMENTO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0While the UCLA women\u2019s basketball team has a veteran roster that was in this exact position a season…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":689224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[75664,32072,1582,276,282924,1910,93429,2961,94710,288916,224,5337,471,55490,11280,5950,554,2501,9716,1628],"class_list":["post-689223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-basketball-team","tag-bruins","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-charlisse-leger-walker","tag-game","tag-gianna-kneepkens","tag-la","tag-large-part","tag-leger-walker","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-no","tag-point-guard","tag-rice","tag-season","tag-shot","tag-ucla","tag-washington-state","tag-year"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116310128011700317","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689223","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=689223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}