UCLA women’s basketball to open season at home against Pepperdine

In late November 2020, the Bruins traveled to Malibu for their first road matchup of the year.

What ensued was confusion and ambiguity until just minutes before tipoff, a positive COVID-19 test within Pepperdine’s program confirmed the second straight postponed game for No. 20 UCLA women’s basketball to start its 2020 season.

Nearly a year later, on Wednesday evening, the Bruins will get their fresh start and open their 2021-2022 season with a home matchup against the same team. Since the contest last year was never rescheduled, this will be the first meeting between UCLA and Pepperdine since 2013.

With fans back in the crowd, coach Cori Close will have her first official test run with a roster featuring eight players that were not with the team last season.

Close said the team chemistry is still evolving, and she expects there to be growing pains early in the season.

“Quite bluntly, I’m trying my best to get to know them too,” Close said. “We’re getting to know each other, we’re trying to become a unit rather than just a sum total of pieces and parts and talent pieces and we’re not there yet.”

Two new additions will not take the court Wednesday night, however, as UCLA has already been hit with several injuries during the weeks leading up to the season. The team will be without both graduate transfer guard Gina Conti and redshirt freshman forward Angela Dugalić for multiple weeks after both sustained injuries late last month.

Without Conti – the projected starting point guard for the Bruins this year – Close said she will turn to junior guard Charisma Osborne and graduate transfer guard Jaelynn Penn to fill the lead playmaking role on opening night.

“Jaelynn and Charisma, they’re perfectly capable,” Close said. “That’s not an issue at all in terms of the capability of that. But just because we don’t have Gina, I don’t want them to lose track of playing to their strengths and being who they are.”

Osborne was tasked with a similar load throughout last season because of the roster shortages her team sustained, but this will be her first season in three years in Westwood playing without forward Michaela Onyenwere – UCLA’s leading scorer each of its past three years.

Close praised Osborne for her growth as a leader on the team leading up to this season, a role the third-year player said she has taken upon herself for the first time this season after learning from the 2021 Kia WNBA Rookie of the Year.

“This year, I’ve learned that I can be that vocal leader, and I can be someone that my team looks up to,” Osborne said. “(Onyenwere) was able to say the hard things and get on me when she needed to, and I think I’ve really been trying to do that for the team.”

Her starting backcourt partner for the opener will be donning the blue and gold for the first time Wednesday evening. Penn, who spent four years with Indiana, said she is excited to introduce herself to Bruin fans, especially after playing a full season in empty stadiums.

“I’m just excited for the energy in the gym that we’re going to have with the fans,” Penn said. “The empty gym was definitely different and weird, you can tell in clutch plays or close times in games, we know the crowd would have got us hype.”

Penn added that she expects to bring an immediate defensive impact to the team and is looking forward to her transition to the Pac-12, which has five teams ranked in the AP Preseason Top 25 – tied for the most in the country.

“I’m just going to go with the flow,” Penn said. “The conference is a really good shooting conference, so I’m excited to change my defensive styles and guarding motion on the court, just keep my defense up. Coach has talked about me possibly getting Defensive Player of the Year, so that’s definitely a goal of mine.”

Redshirt senior guard Kayla Owens, graduate transfer forward IImar’I Thomas and redshirt freshman forward Izzy Anstey will round out the starting five for Close against Pepperdine.

The Waves – who finished with a 5-18 record last season but had two consecutive seasons with more than .500 prior – have three wins in 19 meetings with the Bruins. A win would give UCLA its third consecutive season-opening victory and 10th over Pepperdine at Pauley Pavilion.

In her 11th season with the Bruins, Close said she still finds enjoyment in restarting every season and finding new ways to grow.

“That’s sort of what makes it fun for me is there’s a requirement of adaptation and adjustment,” Close said. “Every season is like a new art project. And there’s such creativity in that, and there’s new ways that I need to contribute to lead and love as a coach.”

The Bruins and Waves will tip off at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.