No. 1 UCLA women’s basketball defeats Nebraska to remain unbeaten

LOS ANGELES — No. 1 UCLA women’s basketball fought off an early surge from Nebraska to come away with a 91-54 win in its Big Ten Conference home opener at Pauley Pavilion on Sunday afternoon.

Kiki Rice went eight-for-eight shooting to score 18 points in the game to surpass 1,000 career points as a Bruin and head coach Cori Close earned her 300th win as UCLA (13-0 overall, 2-0 Big Ten) preserved its unbeaten record.

The Huskers as a team were held to their lowest point total of the season and made just four out of 17 3-pointers despite holding the best percentage in the conference from beyond the arc.

“That was a major emphasis — that we would give up a mismatch on the two before we would give up a three-point look,” Close told reporters. “A huge key was being able to chase them off the three-point line. Defensively, there’s a lot of things to celebrate in this game.”

Lauren Betts played in her first game since Dec. 14 after battling a leg injury and contributed a game-high 21 points despite seeing limited minutes in the fourth quarter.

“Going into (the game), there’s a lot of mind games that I can play with myself,” Betts said. “It’s just making sure that I continue to remind myself of who I am and my teammates and coaches do a really good job holding me accountable to that. I felt much better coming in today.”

Betts resumed her usual dominant presence in the post for lay-ins and blocks and helped UCLA score 46 points in the paint compared to Nebraska’s 22 points.

The Cornhuskers (10-3, 1-1) used a seven-point run to gain a 26-25 lead over UCLA with five minutes left in the second quarter as the Bruins struggled to get through a defense that was aggressive in its double teams and in the paint.

“We were just playing really purposeless,” Close said. “We looked like we were sort of shocked that they came after us. It was all about, we need to do things as a team. We started going rogue and it wasn’t working out too well for us.”

UCLA, which is in its fifth straight week as the top team in the AP Top 25 poll, responded with a 12-2 run in the final three minutes of the opening half. Rice made a layup as part of the run to reach 1,000 career points on the dot and secure a 27-26 lead.

Rice, whose shoulder was still taped due to an injury sustained earlier in the season, burst into the game and battled through the paint to score her team’s first seven points of the night.

UCLA went into halftime with a 37-30 advantage.

Londynn Jones knocked down a corner three towards the start of the third quarter as the Bruins came out of the break refreshed and outscored the Huskers 31-13 in the third frame.

The Bruins held Britt Prince to seven points, but the 5-foot-11 freshman guard was still disruptive, driving to the net and dishing the ball to teammates. Six-foot-3 senior Alexis Markowski —Nebraska’s leading scorer with 15 points per game — was held to three points and two rebounds.

“It started with defense; setting the tone from the very beginning,” Betts said. “Going into the second half we talked about making sure we’re communicating, we’re taking away the three’s like we work on every day in practice. But I think it’s a tone that we set in the mindset.”

Three freshmen took the court at the same time for UCLA in the fourth quarter in Elina Aarnisalo, Kendall Dudley and Zania Socka-Nguemen — the latter of which was playing in just her fourth game of the season. She returned to play on Dec. 20 against Creighton after being cleared from concussion protocol.

Close achieved her 300th win on Sunday night but already became UCLA’s winningest women’s basketball coach on Dec. 14 when the Bruins beat Long Beach State. She said that she’s been so present-minded this season that she didn’t realize that she had hit 300.

“We went into the locker room, their heads were all down and then they had all this confetti. And I literally didn’t know why they were doing that,” Close said. “I want to be respectful and humble and say ‘thank you.’ But I’m thankful to be 2-0 in the Big Ten.”

UCLA can improve to 3-0 in conference play on Wednesday when it hosts No. 23 Michigan.