Women’s basketball cracks top-25 ranking after Oregon road trip
Senior guard Kennedy Burke was named UCLA/Muscle Milk Student-Athlete of the Week after registering a career-high 29 points to help UCLA women’s basketball defeat then-No. 2 Oregon on the road. (Anirudh Keni/Daily Bruin)
By Adriana Conte
Feb. 28, 2019 12:40 a.m.
Eight games into the season, the Bruins’ record was 3-5.
Now, as they they enter the final weekend of the regular season, they have won eight of their last 10 games.
After No. 25 UCLA women’s basketball (17-11, 10-6 Pac-12) defeated No. 6 Oregon (25-3, 14-2) 74-69 on Friday and just narrowly fell to No. 9 Oregon State (25-3, 13-3) 75-72 on Sunday, it earned its first Associated Press top-25 ranking of the season.
“These past two games have shown us that when we stay together and we fight together, anything is possible,” said redshirt senior forward Lajahna Drummer. “It doesn’t matter who the team is or where we are at, but if we stay together and do what we are told to do and do it well, then we should be in a great position no matter what.”
The Bruins entered the 2018-2019 season with only three returning starters, losing top scorers Monique Billings and Jordin Canada to the WNBA Draft.
“At the beginning of the season, it was rough because we were a brand new team,” said senior guard Kennedy Burke. “We have more freshmen than upperclassmen, and they didn’t have the experience of the upperclassmen.”
UCLA’s roster consists of six upperclassmen, only four of whom are starters. The remaining nine players are freshmen and sophomores.
UCLA’s 3-5 record to begin the season was its worst since 2013-2014, when it began 3-5.
Coach Cori Close said despite the shaky start, she knew the Bruins would become a competitive team.
“I have believed – and the staff has believed the entire season – that we can grow into something really good and really special,” Close said. “But I think it was a matter of (the players) gaining enough experience and gaining enough improvement in their skill and execution for them to believe it.”
Friday’s win against then-No. 2 Oregon on the road was the first time UCLA has beaten a top-two opponent since defeating No. 2 Stanford in 2008. The victory also marked the Bruins’ eighth road win, giving UCLA an 8-3 record away from home.
Drummer said playing at the opponents’ home courts has motivated the Bruins to play with more intensity.
“It forces us to focus in a little bit more and have a little more intensity,” Drummer said. “We’re in front of 8,000 fans … and it’s loud and we can’t hear our coaches, so we have to depend on one another because that’s basically all we have on the floor.”
UCLA will have the opportunity to improve its 9-5 home record when it faces Utah on Friday and Colorado on Sunday to close out the regular season before the Pac-12 tournament.
