“It wasn’t our best night.”

That was coach Cori Close’s response to Wednesday’s 96-48 blowout victory against Purdue.

Doubling a conference opponents’ score can still fall short of being the “best night” when the goal is winning a national championship.

No. 3 UCLA women’s basketball (18-1, 8-0 Big Ten) will look to extend its 12-game winning streak as it battles Northwestern (8-11, 2-6) on Sunday afternoon in Evanston, Illinois. The Bruins and Wildcats have never played each other as members of the Big Ten, since their inaugural matchup last season was cancelled due to the Los Angeles fires.

In its past six games – which included three ranked matchups – UCLA scored 88 points per game and boasted an average win margin of 31 points.

But the Bruins have been looking beyond the scoreboard to improve.

“You know what it takes,” Close said. “You know the discipline. You know how hard it is to do it when maybe the score isn’t the feedback that’s actually representative of how you’re playing.”

UCLA has games against No. 10 Iowa and No. 7 Michigan – its highest-ranked opponents since losing to No. 4 Texas – looming on the horizon.

But before it gets to either of those games, UCLA will have to beat a Northwestern squad that has just played three of its best games of the season and enters Sunday’s game with a full week of rest.

“That’s something that we’ve done a really good job of is just trying to take it game-by-game,” said senior center Lauren Betts. “I think we have our own standard that Coach Cori talks about all the time, and we’re just trying to fulfill that every single day.”

The Wildcats won two conference games before losing the third contest by three points on the road against Illinois – a team currently receiving AP poll votes – across the past two weeks.

If UCLA shoots like it did against Purdue – a game where Close’s squad shot 53.7% from the field and 59.1% from deep – Northwestern, who hasn’t scored more than 73 points in any conference game this season, may struggle to keep up.

Senior guard Gabriela Jaquez led the charge for the Bruins on Wednesday, scoring 25 points while shooting 10-for-11 from the field and converting all three of her long-range attempts.

“When you get into a rhythm,” Jaquez said. “See the ball go in the basket a couple times, you feel it. So I kind of just felt it, had a good rhythm tonight (Wednesday) and the ball went in.”

Despite UCLA’s shooting and defensive prowess against Purdue – when the team held the Boilermakers to a 33% field goal percentage – Close said the team is still searching for consistency on offense and defense.

“If you want to get your rhythm on offense, play better defense,” Close said. “And I think there’s just no substitute for that. I still think we have some growing to do in the consistency of that.”

The Bruins – whose one loss and five tightest wins all came away from Pauley Pavilion – will look to continue developing road consistency during their two-game trip to Illinois.

UCLA will have one more Midwestern road trip, when they play No. 7 Michigan and No. 13 Michigan State in February before the Big Ten championship begins in March in Indianapolis.

“We cannot have a lack of discipline,” Close said. “I need to be able to count on this group to do their jobs.”