UCLA women’s basketball rides strong second half to win over scrappy Minnesota

LOS ANGELES — The UCLA women’s basketball team collected itself to have a strong second half and beat Minnesota 79-53 on Sunday afternoon, and extend its unbeaten streak to 21 games.

The No. 1 Bruins remain the last unbeaten team in the nation and continue their program-best start. They have now held the top spot in the AP rankings for 10 straight weeks.

Minnesota trailed by five points at halftime and had the second-lowest turnover rate in the country with 9.9 per game heading into the contest, but UCLA forced 17 and scored 21 important points off of those turnovers to get the win.

“In terms of creating offense from defense,” 5-foot-11 guard Kiki Rice told reporters, “playing in transition and getting out and running is an area that we are really good in. At halftime and the fourth quarter, we talked about that’s something that we really wanted to do.”

Elina Aarnisalo led UCLA with 15 points — the most she’s scored since Nov. 12 against Pepperdine. Rice added 14 points and Londynn Jones had 13 points.

“It’s been a lot of work,” Aarnisalo said. “Individual work with the assistant coaches, trying to focus in every practice. Staying aggressive. I’ve watched a lot of film and I think it just showed in this game — the work that I put in with the coaches.”

Lauren Betts was limited to six points but had 11 assists as UCLA (21-0 overall, 9-0 Big Ten) switched to an inside-out approach in the second half.

Minnesota (18-5, 6-5) presented a difficult defensive challenge with its size and physical play — triple-teaming Betts and creating a one-on-one impasse with anyone else headed toward the net.

Betts, a 6-foot-7 center, kicked out to Gabriela Jaquez for a 3-pointer that gave the Bruins a 10-point advantage 10 seconds into the third quarter. Timea Gardiner made another 3-pointer as UCLA continued to attack from the perimeter.

“Lauren’s got to be skilled enough and knowledgeable enough,” head coach Cori Close said. “But most importantly, she’s got to be selfless enough to say I’m just gonna be a facilitator for my team. And how versatile is she that she can be that kind of passer?”

The Bruins struggled to connect with each other to assemble scoring plays in the first half but went into the locker room with a 33-28 advantage.

The Bruins created turnovers when they were needed and made the most of the opportunities. Angela Dugalić (eight rebounds) snatched a Minnesota pass and dished to Jones, who sank a 3-pointer on the fast break.

Jones shot 50% in the game and 50% from 3-point range.

“She’s been a pretty good shooter for a long time, but I think it’s her decision making and it’s gotten so much better,” Close said. “We’ve really been challenging her when she gets going downhill where they take away her three-point shot, the decision to get out of that as well as her ability to feed the post.”

UCLA made 31.6% of shots from the perimeter in the first half but improved that percentage to 53.8% as the two teams battled in the post. Sophie Hart, Minnesota’s 6-foot-5 big, matched up most often with Betts on the inside and helped limit her to two points in the opening half.

Amaya Battle was responsible for 11 of the Golden Gophers’ 14 points in the first half but was held to four points in the second half. She ended the game with 21 points.

“They applied a lot more ball pressure and they played a lot more physical,” Battle said. “Even just trying to get involved, they made it a lot more difficult.”

The Bruins were the ones playing fearlessly at the end of the game, though. Visibly frustrated by some calls that didn’t go their way, they aggressively drove to the paint for layups and defensive plays.

Jones grabbed a steal and pulled up for a jump shot, then had a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer with an assist from Aarnisalo for a statement play with 2:16 left in the game.

UCLA plays No. 8 Ohio State on Wednesday at Pauley Pavilion, which Close thinks could be a test for the Bruins.

“The more we create stops on defense and get defensive rebounds, the less we’ll have to deal with their press,” Close said. “Ohio State will force us to choose. Will we be disciplined enough to create really difficult shots and make sure we hold them to one hard shot? If we do that, we’ll be all right.”