LOS ANGELES — This was supposed to be a get-right game, OK?
UCLA, once ranked No. 8 in the AP women’s basketball poll, was reeling from an excruciating losing streak — three losses by a combined 10 points, and two of those in overtime. And the Bruins were playing Arizona State, which came into the noon tipoff 0-11 in Pac-12 play.
“We’re three possessions away from being 21-3,” coach Cori Close said. “Like, that’s really what it comes down to. And we let leads deep in the fourth quarter go.
“And so this was about earning a mindset.”
So when UCLA started out with turnovers on its first two possessions Sunday, going 1 for 6 from the field and not coming up with an offensive rebound in the first 3½ minutes, it shouldn’t have been a surprise when Close made three quick substitutions, to send a message.
Message received. The Bruins (18-6, 7-5 in the Pac-12) had their first comfortable finish in a month, hitting the gas in the fourth quarter in an 82-63 victory at Pauley Pavilion.
“Especially in the second half, I just said, ‘If you want to stay on the floor, keep making stops,’ ” Close said. “You (lapse in) defensive intensity or you’re not talking, you’re coming out. I said, it will mess with our rhythm, but it’s that important to me. It’s that important to me that you understand (the importance of) our defense, our intensity, our having each other’s backs.”
UCLA held ASU (now 7-16 and 0-12) to 39% shooting for the game but 5 for 15 in the final 10 minutes. And once the Bruins had a relatively comfortable margin, 67-50 with 6:47 left after companion 8-2 and 12-2 runs, you could see them relax in a good way.
Players made plays — Charisma Osborne with an inside basket with a degree of difficulty of 9, or Londynn Jones hitting Gabriela Jaquez with a three-quarters-court pass for a fast-break basket. Or grad student point guard Gina Conti scoring on a dipsy-doo move off a pass from Osborne, and then grabbing a rebound and…
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