With time counting down on the shot clock in the opening possession, senior guard Kiki Rice launched a step-back 3-pointer that flew out-of-bounds. 

Rutgers forward Faith Blackstone responded less than 10 seconds later with a banked 3 – giving the Scarlet Knights a 3-0 lead.

The Scarlet Knights wouldn’t score for the next seven minutes as the Bruins went on to run away with the lead.

No. 2 UCLA women’s basketball (22-1, 12-0 Big Ten) defeated Rutgers (9-13, 1-11) 86-46. The Bruins’ defense clamped down on the Scarlet Knights, holding them to just 17 made field goals. 

Wednesday night marked the return of former UCLA associate head coach and current Rutgers head coach Shannon LeBeauf, who spent 14 seasons on the sidelines in Westwood. 

LeBeauf also served as the team’s recruiting coordinator during that period, helping bring multiple No. 1-ranked recruiting classes to Westwood. She joined the Bruins’ coaching staff one month after Cori Close was named head coach in 2011. 

“We are not in this position without the investment in this program that coach Shannon (LeBeauf) gave us for 14 years,” Close said. “She came over to my house last night, and our players and staff and some supporters had a chance just to catch up with her. We just want to honor what she invested in this program.”

Senior guard Gabriela Jaquez – one of LeBeauf’s recruits – led the way for the Bruins in the first quarter by scoring ten of the Bruins’ 26 points. Jaquez would contribute 14 points across the contest and was one of five Bruins to reach double-digits Wednesday. 

The Bruins’ defense held the Scarlet Knights to just six points in the first quarter, as the visitors went 2-for-14 from the field, with both conversions coming from beyond the arc. Rutgers shot 45% from three during the contest while only shooting 25.8% from inside the arc.

UCLA struggled to get going from deep, with the team shooting just 7-for-21 from the 3-point line across the game, including several shots that didn’t hit the rim. 

Entering the game, UCLA had the fourth-highest shooting percentage from behind the arc in the nation, where it has converted 39% of its 3-point shots. 

Though Rutgers didn’t convert a shot from inside the arc for the first 13 minutes of the game, its defense clamped down on UCLA in the second quarter, allowing the latter just 14 points. 

Though they won by 40 points, the Bruins only dominated the first and third quarters of the contest, where they outscored the Scarlet Knights 54-14. 

However, the two squads were tied in a combined measure of the second and fourth quarters 32-32, with Rutgers outscoring UCLA 19-18 in the fourth.

“Our team as a whole, the next piece of discipline that we need to grab is learning how to be more consistent,” Close said. “We just are not. We haven’t proven against teams that are not in our caliber from a talent perspective that we can put 40 minutes of disciplined basketball together and play to our standards on a consistent basis.”

Rutgers was also without its season’s top two scorers, as forward Nene Ndiaye – the only Scarlet Knight taller than 6-foot-3 – has been out for a week and guard Imani Lester missed her first game of the season.

With both Scarlet Knight stars out, the Bruins committed just two fouls – 12 less than their season average. After dealing with foul trouble for two consecutive games, senior center Lauren Betts committed just one foul – her fewest in over two weeks. 

However, Betts was unable to outscore her sister – freshman forward Sienna Betts – for the first time this season, as both added 11 points on the day. 

“Sienna sealed really, really well,” Rice said. “She gets low post touches and she finishes well at the rim. As she’s found her rhythm, you can kind of tell from the last two games, she just seems a lot more comfortable out there.”

Feb. 4 also marked National Girls and Women in Sports Day, which was celebrated throughout the game.

“Usually on weekends there’s lots of families here, and these little kids look up to us,” Jaquez said. “It’s super cool because they are familiar faces to us – we do recognize a lot of the people that come to our games, and we really appreciate it. It’s just super cool that we can do this game and lift women up.”

UCLA is now undefeated two-thirds of the way through conference play and has won 16 games in a row. 

The Bruins will go on the road to Michigan next week to take on the No. 8 Wolverines and No. 12 Michigan State – their fourth and fifth top-15 conference matchups.