Bruins figure to stay strong with talent returning
UCLA women’s basketball coach Cori Close was joined by sophomores Lauren Betts and Londynn Jones at Saturday’s press conference after losing a tough one to LSU in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
The room was glum but not tearful. Although a Final Four appearance continues to elude the Bruins, there’s a good chance they’ll make another run at it next season with the involvement of Betts, Jones and the rest of their classmates.
“My job this offseason is to figure out how we can earn more,” Close told reporters. “I think that has to be our next step, and we have to be able to. No excuses. We’ve got to find ways to adjust, to pivot, to overcome, to conquer in relentless pursuit of the excellence that we’re going for.”
Close could make her next move with the support of most of this season’s roster. Guards Charisma Osborne, who is slated to begin a professional career after being an all-around force in five decorated seasons at UCLA, and Camryn Brown have used up their eligibility, but a loaded sophomore class will likely return in full force.
That includes the post presence of the 6-foot-7 Betts, the leadership of Kiki Rice, the silky 3-point shooting of Jones, the competitiveness of Gabriela Jaquez, the defensive potential of Lina Sontag and the forcefulness of Christine Iwuala. It became common to see four sophomores on the court at a time this season.
Angela Dugalic and Emily Bessoir, a pair of 6-foot-4 seniors, have a year of eligibility left. Dugalic averaged 8.9 points and 6.4 rebounds per game this season. Bessoir was one of the best shooters on the team last year, at 9.4 points per game and with a .413 field goal percentage, but was sorely missed after suffering a season-ending knee injury in December.
Both could return to UCLA, which finished 27-7 this season, to fill the experienced veteran roles that will be vacant when Brown and Osborne are gone.
“I think their leadership and who they are off the court — you definitely have a sister in them,” Jones said of Brown and Osborne. “We’re really disappointed and we wanted this for them, but looking forward to amazing things they’re going to do because of the people that they are.”
UCLA relied on its sophomores against LSU on Saturday in a 78-69 loss. The Bruins struggled to make 3-point shots at the start of the game and were 0 for 8 from beyond the arc in the first quarter and 2 for 17 in the first half.
They went into halftime trailing by seven points, but Jones found her rhythm to create a scoring run and keep UCLA in the game. The Bruins held the Tigers to 14 points in the third quarter, but gave up 30 points in the final frame.
The top-scoring players in the game were all sophomores. Betts had a doubledouble of 14 points and 17 rebounds and was named to the NCAA Tournament Albany 2 All-Regional team. Jones and Jaquez each scored 14 points and Rice added 13 points despite fouling out late in the game.
Close was cautiously optimistic about the group of returners after the loss.
“Yes, we have really a great young team, but we talk all the time about in these games that defense and rebounding,” she said. “I thought we rebounded pretty well, but we allowed 30 points in the fourth quarter. It’s going to be tough.”
UCLA has high-level incoming talent. The 2024 recruiting class was ranked second nationally by ESPN in early November and includes three five-star recruits in Avary Cain, Kendall Dudley and Zania Socka as well as Finnish international player Elina Aarnisalo.
Dudley, a 6-foot-2 wing, and Socka, a 6-foot-3 forward, come from Sidwell Friends School — the same Washington, D.C., prep program that produced Rice — and could bolster UCLA’s post presence so it doesn’t have to rely so heavily on Betts.
Aarnisalo, a 5-foot-10 point guard, averaged 12.2 points per game and shot 48.2% from the field and 42.2% from 3-point range as an 18-year-old in Belgium’s top division. Cain, a 6-foot-1 shooting guard, will be traveling a much shorter distance and can add to the defensive play Close is seeking. She averaged 3.2 steals per game, to go with 21.5 points and 6.5 rebounds, in her senior season at St. Joseph High in Santa Maria.
The Bruins welcome this highly ranked class with heightened interest from the SoCal basketball community as fandom increased throughout this season’s tournament run and even before that.
UCLA came into the season ranked No. 4 in the AP poll and took off on a 14game win streak that included wins over ranked opponents like UConn, Florida State and Ohio State. Alumni like Jordin Canada, Earl Watson and Nina and Russell Westbrook came out to support the team and help set a single-game attendance record of 13,659.
“We want to be a part of this incredible momentum that women’s basketball has garnered,” Close said. “We want to make Southern California really proud, and we want to get more eyeballs from the East Coast on our sport here in Southern California.”