No. 12 Bruins host No. 11 Colorado in pivotal Pac-12 game
The No. 12 UCLA women's basketball team has the chance to extend its win streak to three games and get its second win over Colorado this season when it hosts the No. 11 Buffs tonight at Pauley Pavilion.
It's the third-to-last game of the Pac-12 regular season, meaning it's crunchtime in the conference.
Oregon State and USC are tied for second place at 11-4 and UCLA and Colorado are tied for third at
UP NEXT Today: Colorado at UCLA, 6 p.m., ESPN2
10-5. Stanford (12-3) sits in first.
How UCLA (21-5) performs in the final stretch could have implications in the Pac-12 tournament seedings.
“It's important for our team to not seek validation from other people,” Lauren Betts told reporters after the Bruins' win over Utah on Thursday. “If we play the way we did today, no one's going to be able to stop us.”
The Bruins are coming off an 82-52 win after falling to the Utes in overtime earlier in the season. UCLA held Utah to its second-lowest scoring total of the season.
“To play the kind of defense we played against one of the best offenses in the country earns us a lot of confidence,” coach Cori Close said. “I thought this was our best defensive execution of a game plan all year long.”
Close lauded her team's next-play speed and response to mistakes they had made in the game. She praised the defense of Londynn Jones, who also scored a career-high 23 points.
Five Bruins pulled down five rebounds or more with Angela Dugalic leading the way with nine. UCLA logs an average of 43.24 rebounds per game, which is 12th-best in the NCAA.
Colorado (20-6) will enter Pauley Pavilion on a threegame losing streak, but those losses have each been decided by six points or less. It's the first time the Buffs have lost three consecutive games since Jan. 2022.
Aaronette Vonleh led the Buffs' efforts with 18 points in Friday's 87-81 loss to USC and overall Colorado shot 57.1% from the field and made 7 of 13 shots from range. The team has been shooting efficiently this season and has shot 50% or better in 10 games.
Colorado ranks No. 16 nationally in field goal percentage with an overall mark of 47.18%. The team also shares the ball well, ranking seventh nationally in assists per game at 19.3.
The Bruins are blocking out distractions as the Pac12
regular season nears its end — Close said she's deleted the ESPN app from her phone and Betts has deleted X, formerly Twitter, and is limiting her social media time overall in order to focus on the task at hand.
“It's not looking at the rankings, not looking at social media, just making sure that we stay present,” Betts said. “I think just having confidence in ourselves and making sure that we keep pushing each other every single day in practice, that's going to be the most important thing for us.”