NCAA Tournament: No. 1 UCLA women rout No. 16 California Baptist

LOS ANGELES — Before head coach Cori Close entered the locker room, the UCLA women’s basketball team had addressed the issue. The six seniors spoke, the underclassmen chimed in. The Bruins, collectively, understood the standard they had displayed in the first half of Saturday’s NCAA Tournament first-round game against California Baptist was unacceptable.

“We just took accountability of what we needed to fix,” senior Angela Dugalic said.

Close trusts her players to hold these discussions. But in this instance — after one-seeded UCLA took just a 10-point advantage over 16th-seeded CBU into the break — adding her voice to the fire was imperative.

“It was spirited,” Close said of her halftime message. “It wasn’t the fact that we missed shots. Those aren’t the things that get me fired up. It’s when we don’t execute the scouting report, when we are lackadaisical, we don’t communicate and we’re not connected.”

The Bruins responded, combining their internal accountability and Close’s pledge to spark a dominant second-half, and beat the Lancers 96-43.

Lauren and Sienna Betts each notched a double-double. The elder scored 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, while the younger had 10 points and 12 boards. Kiki Rice had 18 points, buoyed by a 10-of-10 outing at the free throw line, and Gabriela Jaquez added 16 points.

UCLA (32-1, 18-0 Big Ten) has grown accustomed to hosting NCAA Tournament regionals, but the Bruins, Dugalic said, couldn’t shake their jitters before the opening tip. That carried into the first half as the Lancers (23-11, 15-3 Big Ten) had tangible Cinderella hopes for 20 minutes.

Filipa Barros connected on a pair of 3-point shots to give the Lancers a lead in the first five minutes. They benefited from UCLA’s sloppiness as Lauren Betts committed a pair of turnovers, earning herself an early seat on the bench at Close’s dismay.

“I thought that those were unforced, and I think she’s better than that, so I was just holding that standard,” Close said. “I’m not mad, it’s just — that’s the standard.”

Close’s benching motivated Betts as she returned later in the first quarter to score a putback layup, a pair of free throws, and a transition layup that put the Bruins ahead by seven.

Still, the Lancers wouldn’t go away. They seemingly brought the March magic from Riverside to Westwood as Shawnee Nordstrom banked in a 30-foot shot to beat the shot-clock and cut the margin to four. Chance Bucher came off the bench for CBU, scoring all of her team-high 11 points in the second quarter to keep it tight.

The Bruins also couldn’t get out of their own way. Sienna Betts failed to corral a defensive rebound before fouling Grace Schmidt, and then lost the ball to Schmidt in the backcourt on the ensuing possession.

After a layup from Jaquez and free throws from Rice extended the lead to double-digits before the break, UCLA regrouped, laying into one another with tough love. The Bruins adjusted their defense, deploying a full-court press, but, overall, the locker-room discourse reinvigorated aggression.

“It wasn’t a game adjustment,” Close said. “We just started to play the way we were supposed to from the beginning.”

Jaquez attacked the hoop and turned defense into offense. Charlisse-Leger Walker followed her lead, picking off a pass and kicking it ahead to Jaquez, who drew a trip to the line. UCLA started the second half with a 17-2 run, in which every basket came in the paint or at the free-throw line.

Kneepkens ran around a flurry of screens for a corner 3-pointer on a baseline out-of-bounds play, Lauren Betts dropped in a layup, and then found Lena Bilic in the corner to extend the lead to 35.

Ultimately, UCLA outscored CBU 31-4 in the third quarter, asserting its dominance, specifically on defense.

“Our team emphasizes defense a lot,” Dugalic said.

The Bruins exemplified that in the postgame press conference when Dugalic redirected a question about a 3-pointer she made to her focus on deflections, and Betts claimed her sister was more proud of her defensive slides than her double-double.

It’s those words that have built Close’s trust in her team, a confidence that Saturday’s slow start won’t become a pattern. Yet she’s wary UCLA must show up as the team from Saturday’s second half, in which it outscored CBU 52-9, if it wants to keep dancing.

“If you don’t come out and establish the way the game is going to be played, and play it to the way that you want it played, you’re in for a fight,” Close said. “Otherwise, we’re not gonna win. I mean, that is really that simple.”