Gabriela Jaquez, No. 2 UCLA women cruise past Niagara 97-46 at Cayman Islands Classic

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Lauren Betts catches full-court pass and finishes the layup for UCLA

Lauren Betts catches full-court pass and finishes the layup for UCLA.

Nov 25, 2023, 10:04 pm

GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands -- — Gabriela Jaquez scored 23 points and Londynn Jones had 21 as No. 2 UCLA beat Niagara 97-46 Saturday at the Cayman Islands Classic.

Angela Dugalic added 14 points and had seven rebounds for the Bruins (6-0), who scored the game’s first 23 points a day after beating No. 6 UConn 78-67.

“Lots to celebrate but also lots of room to grow,” UCLA coach Cori Close said.

“I’m very grateful that we came out of a high-level (tournament field) 2-0 but there’s so much room to grow.”

Niagara finally got on the board when Destiny Strother made a pair of free throws with 2:19 left in the first quarter. She finished with 16 points for the Purple Eagles (2-4).

“It’s really important that we come out ready to play and that comes with the preparation and the confidence that we have in each other,” Jaquez said. “So just coming out, hitting shots is really good. We have a lot of weapons on this team, we know that, we’re aware of it and it’s just good to set the tone for the game.”

The Bruins finished with 54 rebounds compared to Niagara’s 27. They outscored the Purple Eagles 64-10 in the paint in the first-ever meeting between the schools.

UCLA gave some rest to some of its starters. Center Lauren Betts played five minutes. She opened the scoring 22 seconds into the game and those were her only points. Kiki Rice played 20 minutes after finishing two assists shy of a triple-double on Friday night. She finished with eight points.

UCLA’s bench scored 48 of its 97 points, and 11 Bruins scored, the most for the team in a game this season.

“We’ve got a lot of bench players that would be starters on a lot of other top 25 teams so they just need repetition and they need experience,” Close said.

Close said she wasn’t any more concerned than usual about the effort level her team would give after playing a top-10 foe less than 24 hours earlier.

“We expected to win and we treated it as such, which I think helped us with such a short turnaround,” Close said. “We’re not gonna let our highs get too high and our lows get too low. We obviously want to recognize the areas that we grew last night and that they accomplished something that was a great marker for our program but at the same time, today’s just another opportunity to give to each other, to play with each other.”

BIG PICTURE

Niagara: While the game was never in doubt, Niagara forced 26 turnovers, which is the most for the Bruins in a game this season.

UCLA: Coming off its biggest win of the season, UCLA cruised to its largest margin of victory so far.

UP NEXT

Niagara: At Maryland on Wednesday.

UCLA: At Arkansas on Sunday, Dec. 3.

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AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball