UCLA Women's Basketball: Kiki Rice Reveals How Bruins Prepped For Beavers Game
On Sunday in Pauley Pavilion, your 14-0 UCLA Bruins dispatched the 12-2 Oregon State Beavers by double digits, 65-54, although the road was rocky at the end of the contest.
Per Lauryn Olina Wang of The Daily Bruin, sophomore guard Kiki Rice acknowledged postgame that, as part of its practice preparation in the days leading up to contests against both Oregon State and Oregon last week, UCLA has been striving for to be more consistent in its dominance throughout a given night, with more frequent fullcourt pressing.
For three-and-a-half quarters, the Bruins did seem fairly dialed-in on throttling the Beavers. When a 9-0 tear in the third quarter helped extend their advantage to 42-11 and yield five turnovers, it appeared they had the game well in hand. Some clutch three-point shooting in the fourth quarter from Oregon State's wings made things a bit more tenuous. For a time, at least.
“That’s been a big emphasis in practice this week, just pressing the entire time,” Rice said. “Sometimes at the end we’ve been kind of lagging off on that, … so we’ve been reminding each other in the huddles, and I think it’s been a great group effort.”
UCLA next faces the 12-1 USC Trojans this Sunday, having previously given the Cardinal and Gold its only loss of the year thus far two weeks ago