Londynn Jones leads UCLA to blowout victory over Arizona
Londynn Jones scored 16 points, Lauren Betts had 11 points and 12 rebounds, and No. 8 UCLA dominated on the boards in a 61-41 win at Arizona on Saturday night in the teams’ regular-season finale .
The Bruins (24-5, 13-5 Pac-12) shot 57.5% and outrebounded Arizona 43-17. They held a team to fewer than 60 points for the fifth straight game and to less than 30% shooting for the third straight.
“If you’re going to be playing something of an elite level on a consistent basis, you want to build from defense and rebounding,” UCLA coach Cori Close said. “I think the bottom line for us is that we are playing at a really, really high level on the defensive end and the rebounding end.”
A flagrant foul called on Will McClendon turned the tide of the game late, allowing Washington State to win 77-65 and send UCLA to its fourth straight loss.
Betts had her 10th double-double while Jones was five for nine from the field, including four for seven from three-point range. Gabriela Jaquez added 11 on five-for-six shooting for UCLA.
Arizona (16-14, 8-10) looked exhausted after coming off a double-overtime home loss to No. 7 USC on Thursday night. The Wildcats shot only 28.3% and got the bulk of their scoring by forcing 30 UCLA turnovers.
Helena Pueyo led Arizona with 16 points and six steals.
“This was not our best basketball,” Pueyo said.
UCLA led 33-18 at halftime thanks to 60.9% shooting, holding Arizona to 23.3% from the field. The Bruins stayed hot in the third quarter, making three of their first four shots, but then went more than three minutes without a field goal before hitting three in a row to build a 49-26 advantage with 1:58 to go in the period.
A 9-0 run put UCLA up by 15 early in the second quarter.
Big picture
UCLA: Senior guard Charisma Osborne added two to her NCAA-era school record for scoring, now at 2,201 points for her career. The overall scoring leader for the Bruins is Denise Curry, who had 3,198 points from 1977 to 1981 when the school played in the Assn. for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women.
Arizona: The Wildcats faced their 11th ranked opponent this season, the most in school history. Eight of those have been against top-10 teams, including three of their last four.
Up next for UCLA: The Bruins earned the No. 3 seed in the Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas. They’ll play in the quarterfinals Thursday against the winner of a first-round game between sixth-seeded Utah and No. 11 seed Arizona State.
Up next for Arizona: The Wildcats, as the No. 7 seed, will face No. 10 seed Washington in the first round Wednesday.
Go beyond the scoreboard
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