The UCLA Bruins (1-0) needed a big game from their post players against the smaller University of the Pacific Tigers (0-1). A big game is exactly what they got.
UCLA dominated the paint on both sides of the court, finding 36 points in the paint and crashing the boards for 60 total rebounds, en route to their 32-point third quarter and 82-55 season-opening victory.
UCLA junior guard Jordin Canada and junior forward Monique Billings recorded double-doubles with 15 points apiece to go with 12 and 11 rebounds, respectively.
Immediately coming out of the halftime break, the Bruins took the court energized and active, hustling on the offensive boards for multiple attempts around the basket after tallying a steal on the opposite end.
The Tigers’ junior guard GeAnna Luaulu-Summers responded with her team’s sixth 3-pointer of the game, but despite shooting 41.7 percent from behind the arc in the first two quarters, they were unable to carry their deep end marksmanship into the third.
Pacific was then turned away from its dribble penetration attempts into the lane, where the UCLA’s length and athleticism shut them out. UCLA was able to hold its opponents to only six points in the paint while recording 12 blocks in the game. Billings and forward freshman Ally Rosenblum recorded five and four blocks respectively.
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UCLA’s dominance in the paint also extended to the offensive end where it was able to pull down 22 offensive rebounds for easy putbacks or trips to the charity stripe. The Bruins finished with 36 points in the paint.
“Our focus was to be the aggressor and set the tempo coming out in the third quarter,” Billings said. “Like coach Close said, ‘we got punched in the mouth, but it was time for us to punch back,’ and so we did.”
However, the frontcourt was not alone in its rebounding efforts as the backcourt, led by Canada and redshirt senior guard Nicole Kornet, was able to contribute to the Bruins’ activity on the boards. Kornet was just two rebounds shy of a double-double while Canada, who had as many offensive rebounds as defensive, was three assists away from a triple-double.
“We preach all the time that if we’re going to have a bad shooting night, we got to be able to rely on our defense and rebounding,” said UCLA coach Cori Close. “In the first half, I was not pleased at all with our defense. In the third quarter, I felt we came out with a new level of intensity.”
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The Bruins went on a 26-4 run to close the third quarter, hitting five of their last six field goal attempts to extend their lead to 70-44. At the same time, the Tigers were held scoreless for the last 4:19 and forced into careless turnovers like back-to-back traveling violations.
“It was also a turnover game,” said Pacific coach Bradley Davis of the team’s 26 turnovers that led to 25 points. “We had some undisciplined ones in the third and that contributed to the 20-point spread in the third quarter.”
Close first noticed her team’s advantage on the boards near the conclusion of the first quarter when she employed a tall lineup, who went on to gather seven of the team’s 12 first-quarter rebounds on the offensive glass. Later, the Bruins were able to establish a 60-32 rebounding advantage and 18 second-chance points towards the 82-55 final score.
“I think it’s defensively, forcing one hard shot, and then defensively, rebounding,” Close said. “We play about 50 percent zone right now and a lot of times in a zone, it’s hard to come up with those rebounding triangles … but I thought we did a really good job rotating to the weak side of the floor and our guards coming up with a lot of the rebounds. And going into Baylor, that’s absolutely going to be huge.”