{"id":545873,"date":"2026-01-19T02:32:41","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T02:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/545873\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T02:32:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T02:32:41","slug":"will-anyone-challenge-ucla-womens-basketball-certainly-not-maryland-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/545873\/","title":{"rendered":"Will anyone challenge UCLA women\u2019s basketball? Certainly not Maryland \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"UCLA<\/p>\n

UCLA forward Angela Dugali\u0107, left, and UCLA guard Gianna Kneepkens, box out Maryland guard Oluchi Okananwa (7) on the free throw line during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Jayne Kamin-Oncea)\n<\/p>\n

\"UCLA<\/p>\n

UCLA guard Charlisse Leger-Walker (5) fouls Maryland guard Saylor Poffenbarger as she drives to the basket during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Jayne Kamin-Oncea)\n<\/p>\n

\"UCLA<\/p>\n

UCLA forward Sienna Betts (16) and Maryland guard Yarden Garzon reach for a rebound during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Jayne Kamin-Oncea)\n<\/p>\n

\"UCLA<\/p>\n

UCLA center Lauren Betts (51) reacts on the bench after a 3-point basket by her sister, UCLA forward Sienna Betts (not shown), during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Maryland, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Jayne Kamin-Oncea)\n<\/p>\n

\"UCLA<\/p>\n

UCLA guard Gianna Kneepkens (8) is defended by Maryland guard Saylor Poffenbarger as she looks to shoot the ball during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Jayne Kamin-Oncea)\n<\/p>\n

\"UCLA<\/p>\n

UCLA guard Gianna Kneepkens, right, is defended by Maryland guard Saylor Poffenbarger (6) as she drives to the basket during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Jayne Kamin-Oncea)\n<\/p>\n

\"UCLA<\/p>\n

UCLA center Lauren Betts (51) is defended by Maryland guard Addi Mack, left, and forward Isimenme Ozzy-Momodu as she drives to the basket during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Jayne Kamin-Oncea)\n<\/p>\n

\"Maryland<\/p>\n

Maryland guard Oluchi Okananwa, left, and UCLA guard Gianna Kneepkens, front right, reach for the ball during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Jayne Kamin-Oncea)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 8<\/p>\n

UCLA forward Angela Dugali\u0107, left, and UCLA guard Gianna Kneepkens, box out Maryland guard Oluchi Okananwa (7) on the free throw line during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Jayne Kamin-Oncea)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

LOS ANGELES \u2013 Gotta confess, I was rooting for Maryland.<\/p>\n

Not to beat UCLA, no. But to keep it close, Sunday afternoon. To present some sort of a challenge. A little thrill.<\/p>\n

I was hoping the No. 12 Terrapins might provide some semblance of suspense for the 8,721 fans who spent their afternoon at Pauley Pavilion, watching the No. 3 Bruins women\u2019s basketball team wear down the guests in another successful yawner, 97-67.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Bruins went into halftime with 10 turnovers and still had 47 points and a 12-point lead. The inevitable result was right on par with the 29.7-point differential UCLA was winning with entering play.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I was pulling for what was, on paper, UCLA\u2019s most allegedly daunting Big Ten test to actually be a test \u2013 for UCLA\u2019s own sake \u2013 and not another predictable outcome for which the Bruins came prepared with all the answers.<\/p>\n

But Maryland wasn\u2019t up for that. Now 17-3 this season, the Terps were no match for UCLA, which won its 11th consecutive to improve to 17-1, 7-0 in the Big Ten. The Bruins\u2019 only loss was to No. 4 Texas \u2013 almost a favor, as a most-valuable early-season point of motivation.<\/p>\n

Since then, though? The Bruins have been obliterating everyone they\u2019ve faced. Because they\u2019re that much better than everyone they\u2019ve faced.<\/p>\n

Talented and balanced. Selfless and in sync. Loaded with future WNBA draft picks. Bought in, locked in, laser-focused \u2013 fresh off a Final Four run and, with more experience and a couple significant upgrades, wanting better than for this season\u2019s foray to stop again in the national semifinal.<\/a><\/p>\n

UCLA is one of the nation\u2019s top scoring teams (86.4) and one of its better defensive squads, too (56.7). The Bruins have the nation\u2019s third-best assist-to-turnover ratio. They\u2019re out-rebounding opponents by almost 16 boards per game, second-best nationally.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is another Final Four team,\u201d Maryland coach Brenda Frese said. \u201cWith the opportunity to go win a national championship. They have been very intentional this year; they have the right chemistry. They\u2019re gonna be right there. This is a national contender.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bruins have arrived. Firmly among the upper crust of women\u2019s basketball. Right there with perennial powers No. 1 Connecticut and No. 2 South Carolina, with regular contenders LSU and Texas, ranked Nos. 4 and 6 this past week.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just that UConn, say, has decades of experience playing from the front. South Carolina and some of these other traditionally tip-top-tier teams have for years now dialed in a formula for staying in the moment while they annihilate opponents by 30 points or 35 or 38 or 44<\/a>, as they are, while also playing for March.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t, however, regularly chartered territory for a UCLA program that\u2019s steadily ascended to get here.<\/p>\n

And the next time they face a foe that\u2019s truly formidable, it will be in a game with supremely high stakes, probably deep into the NCAA Tournament. And so I worry about how the Bruins will stay sharp for when they run into their fellow buzzsaws.<\/p>\n

Their conference isn\u2019t helping. It might boast eight ranked teams, but as far as the Bruins are concerned, it\u2019s the Big Ten in name only: There are 18 teams in the league, for starters, and compared to UCLA, this season they\u2019re all too small, in basketball trash-talk parlance.<\/p>\n

Across town, rival USC is young and floundering without star guard JuJu Watkins<\/a>, out for the season recovering from a torn ACL. And any other conference opponent who was supposed to issue a challenge \u2013 ahem, Maryland \u2013 has failed.<\/p>\n

So, yes, the Terrapins, with five freshmen in their rotation, will learn plenty from the loss: \u201cWhen we face this again, we\u2019re going to be more prepared for it,\u201d senior guard Saylor Poffenbarger said. \u201cThis is only going to prepare [us] for the games in March that are really important.\u201d<\/p>\n

But what about the Bruins? Who\u2019s preparing them? Or, who beside Close and her staff: \u201cThat,\u201d she said, \u201cis my largest responsibility this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, she said, \u201chonestly, it\u2019s exhausting. I have to just get myself ready [to get on them about] every little thing. I\u2019m just on \u2019em, on \u2019em, on \u2019em! But I know that I can do that and do that consistently because I know what they really want.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s to win a national championship, of course.<\/p>\n

And if the Bruins aren\u2019t going to get mettle-testing help from their opponents, if no one is going to force them to have to finish off a close game, they\u2019re learning that preparation for those pressure-packed moments will have to come from within.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something we talk about every day,\u201d said savvy senior point guard Charlisse Leger-Walker, who finished with 17 points, nine rebounds and eight assists Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you are part of such a great team, it can be easy to be complacent. It can be easy to come in and not fight for every possession, to not fight for your stance on defense when you\u2019re just going through the motions.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur coaches do a really good job of holding the standard in that way, and also my teammates. We\u2019re a veteran group, we have a lot of experience, a lot of leadership and when we feel like things are starting to slip in training, we have one through five people ready to say something about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maybe that\u2019s what it will take, for them to be their own hardest critics \u2013 in practice, and at practice, which is what UCLA\u2019s games have become: Reps for the real thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UCLA forward Angela Dugali\u0107, left, and UCLA guard Gianna Kneepkens, box out Maryland guard Oluchi Okananwa (7) on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,3474,217,325,12180,231,772,1544,66,5747,2239,57836],"class_list":["post-545873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-big-ten-conference","tag-college-basketball","tag-college-sports","tag-mirjam-swanson","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaab","tag-sports","tag-ucla","tag-ucla-sports","tag-ucla-womens-basketball"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115919425417929497","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}