In their last homestand of the season, the Bruins will square up for their most challenging swing in Pauley Pavilion yet.
Only two pairs of schools from the same Pac-12 region have been simultaneously ranked this season: the LA crosstown rival and Colorado and Utah.
And while the conditions won’t be at high altitudes this time, the matchups present other challenges. The Bruins have not faced ranked opponents back-to-back at home in over four years.
No. 12 UCLA women’s basketball (20-5, 9-5 Pac-12) is set to face No. 18 Utah (19-7, 9-5) and No. 11 Colorado (20-5, 10-4) on Thursday and Monday, respectively, to close out its home slate in the regular season. Thursday’s contest supports the Play4Kay Foundation while Monday’s matchup is senior night, and coach Cori Close said her program needs the Bruin fan base to help attendance numbers climb at both.
“We need to feed off the energy of our home crowd,” Close said. “Come on, Westwood; come on, student body, we need to have Pauley packed out for these two games.”
UCLA split its road trip to the mountain schools last month, upsetting then-No. 3 Colorado to match its highest-ranked victory in program history but falling to then-No. 16 Utah in overtime. Since then, the Bruins dropped three contests in a seven-match stretch but most recently rebounded with a road win against last-place Oregon.
The buzzer-beating heartbreaker loss to the Beavers last Friday stalled the push for more consecutive Pac-12 wins after the Bruins swept their homestand against Arizona and Arizona State the weekend before.
Close provided two factors in the loss after the game.
“Defending without fouling and defensive discipline against the three,” Close said. “They got 26 free throws, and they shot 58% from the 3. That’s the difference in the game.”
The Bruins will need to target similar areas against the Utes and Buffaloes this week – particularly against Utah, which ranks seventh nationally in field goal percentage and ninth in 3-point percentage. In the last outing between the two programs, UCLA allowed Utah to go 23-of-24 from the charity stripe and 13-of-28 from beyond the arc. By contrast, the Bruins limited the Buffaloes to 6-of-20 from deep in their win last month.
After that game, sophomore center Lauren Betts said she was basically “living out her dream.”
With only four games remaining in conference play, each outing represents an opportunity to disrupt the standings ahead of the Pac-12 tournament. UCLA sits in a tie for third with Utah, but with three teams tied in second, the Bruins would land the No. 6 seed in the Pac-12 tournament if bids were decided ahead of the weekend’s matchups.
Sophomore guard Kiki Rice said recent shortcomings have revealed the Bruins’ necessary areas of improvement, which will help them cater their preparation for the postseason around the corner.
“Towards the end of the season, we need to be able to fix up the things we’ve been working on and our growth areas,” Rice said after the Oregon State game. “We just need to take what we can from this game and focus on digging in before the postseason.”
Graduate student guard Charisma Osborne said the team isn’t shying away from the rigor of its final four games, displaying little hesitation as she shared her outlook.
“I’m expecting to win all of these games,” Osborne said. “The team is super excited for the challenges that we have ahead. We’re locked in and ready to go.”
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