Elina Aarnisalo paved the way on the court.
The former Bruin guard was not competing for head coach Cori Close, though. Instead, she was facing off against her former teammates on the other side of the ball as a Tar Heel, recording a team-high 13 points.
No. 3 UCLA women’s basketball (4-0) beat Aarnisalo and No. 11 North Carolina (2-1) 78-60 on Thursday night at the WBCA Challenge in Las Vegas. The Bruins will play against all six of their offseason transfers this year, as well as former associate head coach Shannon LeBeauf, who transitioned to Rutgers over the summer.
Aarnisalo, who averaged 32 minutes per game at UCLA last year before departing in the offseason alongside every member of the 2024 recruiting class, not only led her team in scoring but also notched three rebounds and three assists. Facing off against her former teammates seemingly brought out the best in Aarnisalo, who had only recorded two points against Elon last Thursday.
UCLA struggled to maintain its momentum in the first half across what was largely a game of runs.
After ending the first quarter down 17-12, coach Cori Close gathered her team in a huddle. And the Bruins returned to the court to go on an 8-0 sprint to take the lead. But UNC answered to pull ahead to a 28-22 lead halfway through the second quarter, spurred by a 3-point basket from forward Ciera Toomey, who finished the game 3-for-6 from beyond the arc.
Fourteen turnovers for the Bruins, compared to the Tar Heels’ nine, gave UNC multiple back-to-back scoring opportunities, propelling its hot streaks. UCLA continued to crash the glass on both the offensive and defensive sides, though, and recorded 46 total rebounds as a team.
The Bruins have averaged 49.7 rebounds per game to their opponents’ 31.7 this year, including a season-high 57 against the Sooners on Monday.
It was graduate student guard Charlisse Leger-Walker’s layup that sent the Bruins into halftime with a one-point lead over the Tar Heels. The Washington State transfer, who is coming off a redshirt season because of an ACL injury, found a rhythm to go 4-for-6 from the field and recorded five assists.
And after a third quarter that included four lead changes, UCLA – and senior guard Kiki Rice, who scored all 15 of her points in the second half – settled into a lead entering the final frame. The Bruins’ 58-46 lead entering the fourth quarter was their largest of the night.
From there, UCLA rode its success to the victory – and improved its shooting accuracy to end the game with a collective 52.5% clip from the field, after just 46.9% in the first half.
Once again, graduate student Angela Dugalić – who tied her career-high three 3-pointers made in a single game against Oklahoma on Monday night – found scoring success. The Chicago local’s 14 points only trailed Rice’s 15 and senior center Lauren Betts’ 20.
Betts not only proved why she was her team’s leading scorer last year but also why she earned the 2025 Naismith Defensive Player of the Year, notching a team-high two blocks and eight defensive rebounds.
After cashing in against UNC, UCLA will stay in Las Vegas for a matchup against USF on Saturday.
