LOS ANGELES — Every season is its own journey, and while the twists and turns can be anticipated, they’re not necessarily predictable.
And while UCLA women’s basketball continued the momentum that has them ranked fourth in the AP Top 25, with what at first glance would seem to have been an easy 80-59 rout of Oregon in their Big Ten opener Sunday afternoon, there were those moments during the course of the afternoon, the ones that coach Cori Close tends to address quickly and emphatically.
The Bruins are now 9-1 against a non-conference schedule that included four ranked opponents, with victories over Oklahoma, North Carolina, and Tennessee and a loss to Texas in the championship game of the Players Era event in Las Vegas Nov. 26.
They faced an Oregon club that came into Pauley Pavilion 10-0, thanks to an early-season schedule that included no ranked teams, six home games and only one power conference opponent, in a 58-53 victory at Auburn last Sunday.
On paper, the Ducks were formidable. On the court, less so. UCLA raced to an 11-1 lead in the first 4:15, and led 19-8 after a quarter and 47-21 on Lena Bilic’s 3-pointer with 51 seconds left in the first half.
And then the Bruins eased off the accelerator. They were outscored 33-31 after halftime, and had just a 21-19 rebounding advantage in the final 20 minutes after a 31-10 edge in the first half.
It happens. These are college kids. And, yes, Close knows these spells are almost inevitable, and she also knows it’s her job to snap ’em out of it.
“I thought the first half was with great spirit, aggression, one of our best offensive rebounding halves that we’ve had, sixteen assists in the first half, tons of really good things,” she said.
But …
“The thing that I’m really challenging them on is our consistency,” she added moments later.
“When we get into comfortable spaces, we just have to grow on not getting tired of doing it right. … (We) get casual, we communicate less, our rebounding numbers were less, our passion plays were less. If you count the first possession of the second half, 17 of our 22 assists happened in the first 20 minutes and 30 seconds.
“And we just we have to fight for greatness. This is one of the hardest-working teams I’ve ever been around. I mean, they’re great human beings. I love being around them. They’re connected with each other. But I’m really challenging them to be more competitive. Possession by possession, not competitive with the scores, but competitive to our standards. And that’s something that we must address and must address it immediately.”
The numbers painted a stark picture.
Lauren Betts had season highs in points (24), rebounds (14) and blocked shots (5), and she was a plus-28 in the first 20 minutes. She was a plus-3 in the second half.
Go down the list: Kiki Rice was plus-22 in the first half, minus-8 in the second. Gabriela Jaquez was a plus-16 in the first half, minus-5 in the second. Geena Kneepkens was a plus-21 in the first half, a plus-1 in the second.
And so on.
“I thought defensively we did a really good job in the first half of just pressuring the ball, following the scout (report), the things that we kinda talked about leading up to the game,” Betts said. “Yeah, I think we just need to continue to grow on that. I think like Coach Cori said, we can’t really let up that second half because it’s important that we play that way throughout the entire game. So that’s just something we gotta get better at, is just consistency. But I thought defensively we started out pretty well.”
And maybe this is a lesson learned: Once you’ve allowed momentum to slip away, it’s tough to get it back. In UCLA’s favor, they’d amassed a big enough lead to be able to boat-race the Ducks, and maybe a closer score would have caused them to re-engage. The lead slipped to 19 three times in the second half, but never beyond that.
It’s also worth focusing on that first half, and not only UCLA’s dominance but the way they got it done – those 17 assists, for example, and ball movement on offense that could almost be described as elegant. Charlisse Leger-Walker had five of her eight assists in the first half, and Rice all seven of hers. Kneepkens was the beneficiary of many of those passes, with 17 points on a 7-for-13 afternoon overall and 3-for-6 from three-point territory.
“We are all very selfless players, and we just really want to win,” Kneepkens said. “So, like, when you see someone open, we use our IQ and we’re like, ‘Hey, that person’s open, that’s gonna be a great shot.’
“Once you really get to know who you’re playing with, how they play, it’s just a natural flow, I’d say.”
Close noted that “every team is a little bit different in terms of their personality,” and how soon or how often they get it. But she sounded a little frustrated Sunday, because an early timeout in the second half and some pointed words about what she was seeing didn’t seem to have enough impact.
“I think that there are times where we should be having blowout games because we have incredible talent and we have great, you know, players who fit well together,” she said. “But this is really an art project and not a scientific formula. So sometimes, just like I expect them to come back to the drawing board at practice on Tuesday and go, ‘Hey, this is what I’m willing to change,’ I gotta do the same. And I have to go into this as ‘Okay, what didn’t work there?’
“You know, they’re really great young women. They want this just as much as I do. But they have some bad habits that they need some help changing, and so you know, we’ll see. I definitely have a plan for Tuesday’s practice and we’ll see if that works.”
And no, she wouldn’t divulge what that plan was. Her players will find out soon enough.
jalexander@scng.com