Kiki Rice leads hot-shooting No. 2 UCLA to a win over No. 6 UConn in Cayman Islands
GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands — Kiki Rice scored 24 points and No. 2 UCLA held off No. 6 Connecticut 78-67 on Friday in the Cayman Islands Classic.
Rice also had 11 rebounds and eight assists for the Bruins (5-0), who led by as many as 23 points in the second half. Charisma Osborne scored 18 points and Lauren Betts had 13.
“We really were confident that if we executed the game plan, that we were going to win,” UCLA coach Cori Close said. “I say that with great respect [for UConn], but I really believe in what this team is building. I didn’t think we played our best basketball — we really had some moments we really need to clean up — but really proud of this next step and who we’re becoming.”
It’s the first time that the Bruins had defeated the Huskies.
Paige Bueckers led all scorers with 31 points for UConn (3-2).
UCLA coach Cori Close leads a deep and talented women’s basketball roster that is pushing to live up to its No. 4 preseason ranking.
“You can’t beat a really good team with one player,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “It was disappointing that we didn’t get more contributions from more people. Our combinations are all screwed up right now, so that’s got to get sorted out. We struggled, we had our runs, we just didn’t have enough.”
UCLA led by as many as 19 points in the first half before the Huskies cut that deficit to five at halftime.
But the Bruins scored the first seven points of the second half and outscored the Huskies 22-8 in the third quarter. A three-point play by Betts gave the Bruins their first 20-point lead at 57-37 and they led by 21 after three.
The Huskies made a run in the fourth quarter, and cut the lead to 74-65 on a three-pointer by Bueckers with just over two minutes left.
But that was a close as they would get.
UCLA scored the game’s first 10 points and led 28-12 after Camryn Brown’s three-pointer to end the first quarter.
Osborne’s three-pointer to open the second quarter extended that lead to 19 points. Osborne scored all 18 of her points on three-pointers, making six of 10. The Bruins made 12 of 25 from deep.
But Bueckers had 18 points in the first half to keep UConn in the game. She led the Huskies on a 13-0 run to bring Connecticut back to within three at 37-34
Rice scored 14 of her points in the first half and UCLA went into the break up 39-34.
The Bruins held the Huskies to 33.3% shooting from the field overall. UConn also made only nine of 23 three-point attempts.
Meanwhile, UCLA shot 45.8% from the field and made 12 of 14 free-throw attempts
No. 2 UCLA came into the game with its highest ranking in program history with five players averaging double figures, led by Betts at 19.5 points. Betts also had seven rebounds Friday.
The Bruins continue in the tournament against Niagara on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. PST.
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