INDIANAPOLIS — Cori Close doesn’t believe in the concept of survive and advance.
If her team is going to win the school’s first NCAA championship, the UCLA women’s basketball coach needs her players to thrive and advance.
That means the Bruins are playing at their highest level and attacking every game with an aggressive mindset.
One day after they failed to adopt that mentality,falling into a big early hole, they were looking a lot more like themselves on Saturday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Racing into an early double-digit lead with sticky defense, the top-seeded Bruins asserted their will. Their opening surge set the tone for a 72-62 victory over fifth-seeded Ohio State in a Big Ten Tournament semifinal.
Point guard Kiki Rice scored 17 points to lead five players in double figures for the Bruins (30-1), helping them notch their 24th consecutive victory.
UCLA was also strong defensively, logging 10 steals and six blocks while holding the Buckeyes (25-7) to 36.8% shooting.
Always striving for improvement, Close said this version of her team was not fully thriving.
“Closer to thrive, how about that?” Close said. “I think that there were some moments, I thought, a little bit in the second quarter and a little bit in the third that we sort of got sped up, but I thought our responses were really good, and we started out the right way. It’s not that really we went up 14-3, it was more so the energy that we were playing with.”
UCLA can win a second consecutive conference tournament title after having previously won just one as members of the Pac-12, in 2006.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
