LOS ANGELES - No. 2 UCLA's (26-1, 16-0) Thursday night win over Washington (19-8, 9-7) passed by with relative ease, like nearly all of the Bruins' games have this season. The Huskies scored the first two points of the game and the Bruins led the rest of the game on the way to an 82-67 win to stay undefeated in the Big Ten.
The win also took UCLA into territory that they haven't seen at all in the 21st century. Thursday's win clinched at least a portion of the Big Ten regular season title for UCLA for the first time since the 1998-99 season, when the Bruins shared the Pac-12 regular season crown with the Oregon Ducks.
"To have a couple of alumni that that were on that [1998-99] team here today, it's really special," UCLA head coach Cori Close said. "I really want to complement these guys [UCLA's players] for really always having a sense of humility that we walk on the shoulders of the people that came before us. We're just really thankful to be in the position we're in."
The Bruins had a shot at the Big Ten regular season title last season, but the crosstown rival USC Trojans stood in the way by delivering the Bruins their only two regular season losses of the season.
Looking for more than the conference crown
The Trojans haven't been a problem this season, and really no other team has either up to this point. UCLA is just two games away from an undefeated conference record and the outright Big Ten crown.
"I'm really proud of this team. Obviously, we want to win it outright and continue to make sure we finish this regular season the right way," senior center Lauren Betts said. "Obviously, it's great, but we have bigger things ahead that we're looking forward to. So we're just going to continue to keep our heads down and keep getting better."
Close would be the first to agree that the Bruins still have ways to get better. They outscored the Huskies in all but the final quarter, but their defense at times wasn't up to the standard that Close enforces, particularly at the end of the first and second halves. Turnovers too became a problem late in the game and the Bruins finished the game with 14 of them.
Controlling the controllables
Closing games, playing cleanly all the way through and maintaining intensity has been one of UCLA's very few problems, and it's what Close zeroes in on the most.
"You're not going to win every possession, but you have to have a focus on the controllables," Close said. "I don't mind some turnovers. Aggressive ones that maybe don't work out. But, what we're doing in terms of controlling the things under our control: you've got to not have careless turnovers."
John Panganiban-The Sporting Tribune
UCLA forward Angela Dugalic (32) dives for possession during a Big 10 basketball game against Washington, Thursday February 19th, 2026 in Los Angeles, California
Something that didn't need fixing in UCLA's game on Thursday was their number of what Close calls "passion plays," moments where a player shows great effort. UCLA has been bereft on the adequate number of passion plays by Close's standard in the past, particularly in their win over Michigan State, but their Thursday win had no such problems.
Graduate guard Gianna Kneepkens especially shined in her number of passion plays, diving for loose balls at times.
"That's just something you can control always is being able to dive on the floor and try and get those extra possessions for your team," Kneepkens said. "I didn't love how I was in the past games with it, so I just tried to focus on it a little bit more in this game."