UCLA women’s basketball coach Cori Close has been asking her team for toughness. She’s vocalized the need for grittiness in press conferences and been hard on the team during practice, leaning into players — doing everything short of putting on football pads.
The Bruins are giving Close what she wants and what the team needs, and it started in a 67-65 win over Iowa on the road.
“We had to earn some toughness tonight and we did,” Close told reporters after the game. “And I thought we had to do it with our defense and we did.
UCLA (26-1 overall, 14-1 Big Ten) has one more chance to manifest its toughness before returning home for its regular season-ending rematch against USC that’s been sold out since Feb. 12. The Bruins will head to Wisconsin (13-14, 4-12) for a 5 p.m. tip Wednesday.
The team has regained momentum since falling to USC on Feb. 13 in its only loss of the season. It’s gone on a three-game winning streak, with two over ranked teams, to move up to the No. 2 spot in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.
Texas is currently the No. 1 team after going on an 11-game winning streak that included four wins over ranked teams.
The victory over Iowa gave UCLA a program record with 14 conference wins and allowed the Bruins to compete in a high-intensity environment. Nearly 15,000 fans packed into Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Sunday, the biggest crowd UCLA has played in front of all season.
“I knew it was going to be a really cool environment,” 6-foot-7 center Lauren Betts said. “I’m not surprised it was a sold-out crowd. It was just a really great opportunity for our team to experience this and have fun with it and show who we are as a team.”
Wisconsin is coming off of back-to-back road wins against Penn State and Northwestern but has struggled to put together a complete four quarters throughout this season under fourth-year head coach Marisa Moseley.
“We’ve got to be really be able to put scores and stops together,” Moseley told reporters after a loss to Illinois. “That sounds pretty routine, but obviously we’re finding that challenging and so we’ve got to put our team in a better position to do that.”
UCLA will have to contain 6-foot-4 Badgers forward Serah Williams, who is third in the Big Ten in scoring at 19.1 points per game and second in rebounding with 10.2 boards per game. She’s one of only two players in Division I to average in those figures or higher in both categories.
The Bruins’ offense has also been functioning well. Forward Angela Dugalić tied a career-high with six assists against Iowa and the 6-foot-7 Betts is still the second-highest scorer in the conference. The team as a whole is best in the conference in eight statistical categories, including assists per game and field-goal percentage.
And, perhaps most importantly, the intangible toughness the coaching staff harps on began to bloom against Iowa.
“We were down 12 (points), 6:43 in the third quarter and from that point on, I think we won the rebounding battle, we won the hustle battle and we won the toughness battle,” Close said. “We didn’t always win it leading up to it – but that’s how we got the job done.”
No. 2 UCLA (26-1, 14-1) at Wisconsin (13-14, 4-12)
When: 5 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Kohl Center, Madison, Wisconsin
TV: Peacock