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LOS ANGELES — No. 1 UCLA women’s basketball fought off an early surge from Nebraska to come away with a 91-54 win in its Big Ten Conference home opener at Pauley Pavilion on Sunday afternoon.
Kiki Rice went eight-for-eight shooting to score 18 points in the game to surpass 1,000 career points as a Bruin and head coach Cori Close earned her 300th win as UCLA (13-0 overall, 2-0 Big Ten) preserved its unbeaten record.
The Huskers as a team were held to their lowest point total of the season.
Lauren Betts played in her first game since Dec. 14 after battling a leg injury and contributed 21 points despite seeing limited minutes in the fourth quarter.
Betts resumed her usual dominant presence in the post for lay-ins and blocks and helped UCLA score 46 points in the paint compared to Nebraska’s 22 points.
The Cornhuskers (10-3, 1-1) used a seven-point run to gain a 26-25 lead over UCLA with five minutes left in the second quarter as the Bruins struggled to get through a defense that was aggressive in its double teams and in the paint.
UCLA, which is in its fifth straight week as the top team in the AP Top 25 poll, responded with a 12-2 run in the final three minutes of the opening half. Rice made a layup as part of the run to reach 1,000 career points on the dot and secure a 27-26 lead.
Rice, whose shoulder was still taped due to an injury sustained earlier in the season, burst into the game and battled through the paint to score her team’s first seven points of the night.
UCLA went into halftime with a 37-30 advantage.
Londynn Jones knocked down a corner three towards the start of the third quarter as the Bruins came out of the break refreshed and outscored the Huskers 31-13 in the third frame.
The Bruins held Britt Prince to seven points, but the 5-foot-11 freshman guard was still disruptive, driving to the net and dishing the ball to teammates. Six-foot-3 senior Alexis Markowski —Nebraska’s leading scorer with 15 points per game — was held to three points and two rebounds.
Three freshmen took the court at the same time for UCLA in the fourth quarter in Elina Aarnisalo, Kendall Dudley and Tania Socka-Nguemen — the latter of which was playing in just her fourth game of the season. She returned to play on Dec. 20 against Creighton after being cleared from concussion protocol.
