LOS ANGELES – The celebrating had barely died down when UCLA coach Cori Close felt the need for some perspective after her fifth-ranked Bruins shocked No. 1 South Carolina Sunday.
“It's only November 24,” she said. “Am I proud of our team? Yes, but this is just the beginning. We just can’t get tired of doing things right.”
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Sounds a lot like her mentor, the late John Wooden. He coached the Bruins' men's teams to 10 national championships from 1949-1975, including an 88-game winning streak. The men won a record 11th title in 1995.
Those banners hang in the rafters of Pauley Pavilion, where Wooden's former seat stands out in gold amidst a sea of blue.
The current Bruin women are looking to hang one of their own.
“We all want the same thing at the end of the day,” star center Lauren Betts said. “It doesn't matter who's scoring the most points.”
Their 77-62 stunner capped a big weekend of women’s basketball in Los Angeles. Hannah Hidalgo and No. 6 Notre Dame beat JuJu Watkins and third-ranked Southern California 74-61 on Saturday.
UCLA beat a No. 1 team for the first time in school history, having been 0-20 in such games.
“We expected to win,” Close said. “There was just never a doubt. We prepared like we expected to win.”
They played like it from the start in front of an announced crowd of 13,659. The old guard was there in the form of Ann Meyers Drysdale and Denise Curry from UCLA’s 1978 AIAW national championship team.
Former Bruins Maylana Martin, Natalie Williams, Nikki Blue, Noelle Quinn, who coaches the Seattle Storm, and Natalie Nakase, who leads the Golden State Valkyries, represented the more recent past.
UCLA (5-0) dominated from start to finish, with the Bruins’ suffocating defense preventing the Gamecocks from making any sustained scoring runs.
Londynn Jones scored 15 points, making all five of her 3-pointers, to lead five Bruins in double figures. Among them was freshman Elina Aarnisalo from Finland, who added 13 points while running the pick-and-roll.
Betts cited Aarnisalo as the team's most underrated player. She's started all five games so far.
“She's never intimidated by anybody. She was going through people like it was nothing,” Betts said. “She shouldn’t be underrated anymore.”
Aarnisalo shot 6 of 10 from the floor to go with four assists and three rebounds.
“Elina did a really great job. It was fun watching her,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “I was hoping she could come off the bench and she was the one who was really, really aggressive.”
Kiki Rice was one of three players with 11 points in her first start and second game of the season after sustaining a preseason shoulder injury. The junior has been a stalwart at guard in her first two years.
“She looked so amazing and she really is the rock of our team,” Betts said. “She has a super-calm presence on court.”
The Bruins will move higher in Monday's AP Top 25 rankings, but Close doesn't much care about those numbers. She's challenging her team to do more than score a big win in late November.
“Is this what you came here to do?" she asked. "Just this one?”
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