WEST LAFAYETTE, INDIANA -- No.1 UCLA (16-0, 5-0) kept their perfect season rolling with a blowout win 83-49 against Purdue (7-8, 0-4) Tuesday, Jan. 7 at Mackey Arena.
UCLA junior center Lauren Betts continued to be a force to contend with, leading both teams with 17 points. Betts is seventh in the Big Ten conference in points and has scored double digits in every game she has appeared in this season.
"I think the second half I just came out a lot more aggressive," Betts said. "I think my teammates just always do a really good job of finding me."
The Bruins were off and running from the gate with a 13-0 run. They never looked back and led the game the whole way before closing the game out by an over 30 point margin of victory. UCLA led by as much as 37 late in the game.
The bench showed out for UCLA in the matchup. The Bruins scored 35 points off the bench, led by junior forward Timea Gardiner, who knocked down 16 points, one shy of the team lead.
"My teammates haver belief in me as well as my coaching staff. They constantly breathe that confidence into me," Gardiner said. "All you got to do is go out here and execute the job."
Four Bruins in total hit double digits in points, with junior guard Londynn Jones close behind with nine points, all off three pointers.
Junior guard Kiki Rice scored 11 points, shooting 5-7 while junior forward Janiah Barker contributed another 11 points off the bench.
A running theme for the Bruins in the 2024-25 season has been their dominance in the paint and their control of the hoop.Tuesday night was no exception: the Bruins scored 40 points in the paint compared to Purdue’s 12 and out-rebounded the Boilermakers by 18.
That dominance under the hoop has been a key to the Bruins shut-down success all season.
They simultaneously create opportunities to score for themselves while taking away the same kind of opportunities away from their opponents. This particularly shows in their defensive rebounds, where the Bruins are ninth in the nation.
"We're just really trying hard to play consistently to our identity," UCLA head coach Cori Close said in a postgame press conference.
UCLA outshot the Boilermakers in every quarter, but they set the tone in the first, their best scoring period of the game and a quarter where they outscored Purdue by 16.
The victory improves UCLA’s Big Ten record to 5-0 and puts them squarely in first place in the conference, trailed by both Maryland and USC.
UCLA returns home for their next matchup, another conference bout against Northwestern, Sunday, Jan. 12 at 2 pm at Pauley Pavilion.