Dominating defense leads Bruins to win

Londynn Jones scored 16 points, Lauren Betts had 11 points and 12 rebounds, and No. 8-ranked UCLA dominated on the boards in a 61-41 win at Arizona on Saturday night in the regular-season finale for both teams.

The Bruins (24-5, 13-5 Pac-12) shot 57.5% and outrebounded Arizona 43-17. They held a fifth consecutive opponent under 60 points and third straight below 30% shooting.

“If you're going to be playing something of an elite level on a consistent basis, you want to build from defense and rebounding,” UCLA coach Cori Close said. “I think the bottom line for us is that we are playing at a really, really high level on the defensive end and the rebounding end.”

The Bruins earned the No. 3 seed in the Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas. They'll play in the quarterfinals Thursday against the winner of a first-round game between sixth-seeded Utah and No. 11 seed Arizona State.

Betts had her 10th double-double of the season while Jones was 5 of 9 from the field including 4 of 7 from 3-point range. Gabriela

TUCSON, ARIZ. >> THE SCORE

UCLA 61, ARIZONA 41

Up next: UCLA vs. UtahArizona State winner, Pac-12tournament, Thursday, 8:30 p.m., Pac-12 Network

SUMMARY

UCLA (24-5)

Dugalic 3-6 3-5 9, Betts 4-5 3-4 11, Jones 5-9 2-2 16, Osborne 1-4 0-0 2, Rice 3-6 1-2 7, Iwuala 1-2 0-0 2, Jaquez 5-6 1-2 11, Muse 0-0 0-0 0, Sontag 1-2 1-2 3, Brown 0-0 0-0 0, Totals 23-40 11-17 61

ARIZONA (16-14)

Cunningham 3-9 0-0 6, Martinez 1-10

2-2 4, Jones 1-7 0-0 2, Pueyo 7-14 1-2 16, Williams 0-5 2-2 2, Beh 2-4 1-2 5, Rhodes 0-0 0-0 0, Blakely 3-11 0-0 6, Totals 17-60 6-8 41

3-Point Goals:

UCLA 4-12 (Dugalic 0-2, Jones 4-7, Osborne 0-2, Sontag 0-1), Arizona 1-12 (Martinez 0-3, Jones 0-2, Pueyo 1-4, Williams 0-2, Blakely 0-1);

UCLA 18 (Rice 6), Arizona 11 (Blakely 3, Martinez 3);

None; UCLA 43 (Betts 12), Arizona 17 (Martinez 3, Pueyo 3); UCLA 12, Arizona 16;

None; 7,845.

Assists: Fouls: Fouls:

Rebounds:

A:

Fouled Out:

Total Technical

Jaquez added 11 on 5-of-6 shooting for UCLA.

Arizona (16-14, 8-10) looked exhausted after coming off a double-overtime home loss to No. 7 USC on Thursday night. The Wildcats shot only 28.3% and got a bulk of their scoring by forcing 30 UCLA turnovers.

Helena Pueyo led Arizona with 16 points and six steals.

“This was not our best basketball,” Pueyo said.

UCLA led 33-18 at halftime thanks to 60.9% shooting, holding Arizona to 23.3% from the field.