WESTWOOD — UCLA women’s basketball head coach Cori Close on Wednesday offered a guarded update on center Lauren Betts, who has missed the Bruins’ past two games for “undisclosed medical” reasons.
“She practiced a little bit today,” Close said. “She’s day to day and we’re starting to reintegrate her a little bit.”
Close didn’t go into details on the extent of Betts’ absence, what has caused it or a specific date of when she could return to game action, but she mentioned that UCLA will send out a press release with information Saturday.
UCLA (16-3, 5-3) faces Cal (13-8, 3-6) at 7 p.m. Friday in Berkeley.
Betts leads the team with 15.4 points and 8.6 rebounds per game. The Bruins have split their two games without the 6-foot-7 sophomore – pulling away from Washington on Friday before falling behind against Washington State and coming up short Sunday to drop them five spots in the AP poll to No. 7.
The focus now is on leaning into the strengths of their guards until Betts can return.
“We have great guards on this team,” Bruins sophomore guard Kiki Rice said Monday. “We’ve focused a lot on establishing the post in all of our games so far. Without her, we do have to recognize that, ‘OK, we have to bring back our attack mentality.’”
Added senior guard Charisma Osborne: “I think we know we need to step up. Either score, or set up people so they can get good shots for themselves. I think we’ve been really focused on that.”
Read the full article here
