The Bruins got their first road sweep of the season over the weekend, propelling them from eighth to third in the Pac-12 standings, behind just Oregon and Stanford. UCLA is also the only team in the conference that ranks top-three in scoring and in giving up the least amount of points.
No. 13 (13-4, 4-2 Pac-12) UCLA women’s basketball has been holding teams to 40.1 percent shooting and just 26.8 percent from the 3-point line. A testament to its on-ball defense, junior guard Japreece Dean holds pride in guarding her opponent.
“It’s a pride thing, getting down and guarding your own, and not wanting someone to beat you,” Dean said. “We talk about having a lot of pride in every possession and every defensive possession.”
The team’s athleticism on defense was on full display in its win against Colorado (11-6, 2-4) on Sunday, when UCLA posted double-digit steals for the 10th time this season, and had its fourth-highest block total of the year with six.
Coach Cori Close, who said she believes the team’s identity lies on the defensive end, still sees room for improvement.
“We’re still getting beat on way too many straight line drives – we got a long ways to go in terms of pick and roll defense,” Close said. “It’s a commitment. … Sometimes it’s not glorious, sometimes you don’t feel like it but your commitments determine your destiny.”
The Bruins have been up and down offensively in conference play, shooting less than 40 percent from the floor in three of their six games. The team has found other ways to score, whether it’s by thriving on the offensive glass – averaging 16.7 per game – or turning their defense into offense, scoring 21.4 points off of turnovers.
Senior guard Jordin Canada credits her teammates’ abilities to rebound and defend to their grit and grind, up-tempo style offense.
“(Redshirt junior forward Lajahna) Drummer and (senior forward Monique) Billings … and (freshman foward Michaela) Onyenwere play a big part of that (by) giving us rebounds and (giving) us the ability to push,” Canada said. “It’s also because of our defense being aggressive and being able to make them take one hard shot.”
UCLA has shot 3-pointers well over the past two games, as it shot 15-of-35, good for 41.6 percent from long range compared to its average 31.9 percent. Even with efficient shooting the past two games, Close understands that the Bruins lost a lot of outside shooting compared to last year and need to be dominant in other parts of the court.
“When you’re not a great shooting team, my challenge to them is then, ‘Hey, you got to be a great rebounding team, you got to get second shot opportunities,’” Close said. “We know that’s where we’re built (on) and it’s going to start on the defensive end of the court.”
The Bruins return to action Friday against California (13-4, 4-2) in Pauley Pavilion.