Women’s basketball concludes regular season with decisive win over Utes

Behind a senior’s career night on Senior Day, the Bruins wrapped up the regular season in victorious fashion.

No. 9 UCLA women’s basketball (25-4, 14-4 Pac-12) clinched the No. 2 seed in the Pac-12 tournament with a victory over Utah (13-16, 6-12) by a final margin of 77-54. Redshirt senior guard Japreece Dean finished the game with 14 points and eight assists while tying a career high with 12 free throws.

With 3:01 left in the game, Dean checked out to a standing ovation for what may be her final time stepping on Nell and John Wooden Court as a player.

Dean said last year’s Senior Day – where she was honored without knowing whether or not she would get the year of eligibility she is currently on – made Sunday’s ceremonies less distracting for her.

“I’ve been through this before, so I took it like just another game,” Dean said. “Last night, I was thinking about it a lot and couldn’t sleep a little bit, but when I got here I felt fine.”

UCLA jumped out to a 19-4 first quarter lead thanks in part to a 7-0 run followed by an 8-0 run. From that point on, the Bruin lead only fell below double digits once, expanding all the way out to a 28-point lead midway through the fourth quarter.

UCLA finished the first quarter with 24 points, the most it has scored in the opening frame in any Pac-12 game this season. Junior forward Michaela Onyenwere, who led the team in scoring with 15 points, contributed a team-high 11 points in first quarter alone.

This came two days after UCLA outscored Colorado 20-8 in the first quarter of its victory on Friday.

“We traditionally haven’t had the best starts, so I think this last game and the (Colorado) game we probably had two of our best starts,” Onyenwere said. “That is something that is for sure a key moving forward in the postseason. We have a lot of room to grow, and that’s something we really need to hone in on.”

Despite never having the tallest player on the court, UCLA grabbed 55 rebounds – the most boards it has had in a game all season. The Utes also occasionally played lineups that featured three players taller than any Bruin.

In the first half alone, UCLA grabbed 20 offensive rebounds, a mark that would have been tied for the third-highest offensive rebound total across an entire game. The Bruins finished with a season-high 29 offensive rebounds.

Coach Cori Close said size isn’t the only thing that matters when it comes to rebounding.

“We’re going to be undersized against almost every team we play, and so what?” Close said. “It’s much more about tracking the ball, desire, commitment and relentlessness than it is about size, and I think that’s what we proved today.”

As a team, the Bruins shot below their season average of 39.3, but all 10 players who played scored, including seven who scored above their season scoring average.

Onyenwere said she attributed this to her teammates staying engaged.

“It makes the game a lot more fun for sure when you’re just fighting for your teammates,” Onyenwere said. “That’s always really good, having the teammates that are always willing to go the extra mile to make a play for the team.”

After the game was over, Dean brought her teammates together to say one more thing to her team.

“I just told them ‘great game’ – that’s all I said, to be honest,” Dean said.