This post was updated Nov. 7 at 10:46 p.m.

Lauren Betts banked in a layup 14 seconds into the game.

It wasn’t her first time shooting on a Pauley Pavilion basket – she played in the Westwood arena for Stanford last season.

But the then-freshman center played just two minutes in that January matchup and missed her only attempted shot.

Ten months later, the new Bruin wasted no time introducing herself to a new set of fans.

Betts tied for the game lead with a career-high 20 points and had a team-high seven rebounds in her debut for No. 4 UCLA women’s basketball (1-0) in its 92-49 season-opening win over Purdue (0-1). Sophomore guard Londynn Jones also scored 20 points, while senior forward Angela Dugalić added 13 points in her first game since tearing her ACL in August 2022 and missing all of last season.

“I was just really excited going into today,” Betts said. “Little bit of nerves, but honestly with the confidence of my coaches and my teammates that they had in me, it just makes me go out and do amazing things. … I just had a lot of fun today, such a great first game for me.”

Betts’ opening basket jump-started a wire-to-wire victory as the Bruins outscored the Boilermakers 24-8 after the opening 10 minutes. The 6-foot-7 center made all three of her shots in the period, including a last-second basket to complete a 9-0 run for UCLA over the final 2:34 of the quarter.

Dugalić joined Betts as the frontcourt starter for the Bruins in her first game action since March 31, 2022. And like Betts, the 6-foot-4 forward had an instant impact.

The Oregon transfer began her 2023-2024 campaign with a 3-pointer in an 11-point first half. Dugalić scored six consecutive points in the second quarter, including a pair of free throws that began the same 9-0 run Betts would finish.

Between the frontcourt scores, Jones scored five of her team-high 14 first-half points. The 5-foot-4 guard went 4-of-6 on 3-pointers in the opening two frames after earning her first career start.

Coach Cori Close said she elected to start Jones over senior forward Emily Bessoir and sophomore forward Gabriela Jaquez to match up with Purdue on the perimeter.

“We’ve been playing Emily (Bessoir) at the three a lot or Gabs (Jaquez), and I just thought Londynn was a better matchup,” Close said. “In this case I thought Londynn earned it, period. She prepared well, she did her job, but I also think it is going to change a lot because of the matchups that we have game in and game out.”

Behind 35 points on 13-of-19 shooting from the trio of Jones, Dugalić and Betts, the Bruins shot 55.2% from the field and 46.2% from beyond the arc in the first half. UCLA went into the halftime break leading 42-24.

The Bruins blew things open in the second half.

Betts added another 10 points, while Jones splashed two 3-pointers to finish with a career-high six triples. 

“It’s work – I practice this a lot,” Jones said. “We all do it after practice, and so these are just the extra reps that we get in, and so when it’s in the game it literally feels exactly the same.”

UCLA outscored Purdue 50-25 in the final 20 minutes, finishing the game with 29 assists on 35 made shots.

Close said her team’s 15 turnovers were excusable given how many assists they were able to rack up.

“I’d like to get us to the 12 or under (turnovers),” Close said. “But the reality is, if they continue to get 29 assists, I’ll live with that. That’s 2-1 as a team, almost.”

Behind three new starters, the Bruins kicked off 2023 with a 43-point victory.