LOS ANGELES – Gabriela Jaquez keeps finding new ways to impress.
The versatile senior forward has already displayed a wealth of new skills throughout the 2025-26 season, most notably her shooting ability, but Wednesday’s game against Purdue was a new chapter in her scoring prowess.
Jaquez scored a team-leading 25 points and missed just a single shot across all three possible mediums on the court. She was 10-11 from the field, 3-3 from three point range and 2-2 from the charity stripe.
“Shooting the shots that I’ve practiced all the time and I got a lot on transition, which is my favorite way to score,” Jaquez said. “I think when you get in a rhythm, see the ball go into the basket a couple times, you feel it. So, I think I just felt it and had a good rhythm tonight and the ball went in.”
An abundance of weapons in Westwood
Jaquez’s emergence is just one of many reasons that UCLA is so dangerous this season. The Bruins were already formidable last season, but much of that dominance rested on senior center Lauren Betts’ 6’7 shoulders.
There were few answers for her in the post up until the Bruins’ Final Four elimination to UConn and tossing to her in the paint was an easy, almost automatic chance at a score.
Jordan Teller – The Sporting Tribune
Lauren Betts #51 of the UCLA Bruins calls for the ball during an NCAA basketball game against the Purdue Boilermakers, Wednesday January 21, 2026 in Los Angeles, Calif.
Now, in addition to Betts’ continued presence, the Bruins are surrounded by shooters that can impact the game from the perimeter or midrange.
There are existing shooters like Jaquez and Kiki Rice, but there’s also the addition of three-point sniper graduate guard Gianna Kneepkens, who scored 14 on Wednesday, and senior guard Charlisse Leger-Walker, who scored 15.
“I think it’s just really hard for other teams to guard us when they’re so focused on double-teams, triple-teams [on Betts] when we have such threats on the perimeter,” Betts said. “It’s just really tough to guard them and I’m glad they’re all on my team.”
Jordan Teller – The Sporting Tribune
Head coach Cori Close of the UCLA Bruins points on the sideline during an NCAA basketball game against the Purdue Boilermakers, Wednesday January 21, 2026 in Los Angeles, Calif.
Close still looking for improvement
No. 3 UCLA (18-1, 8-0) might have beaten Purdue (10-9, 2-6) 96-48, but head coach Cori Close is always looking for improvement. A fitting mentality, especially on a night where UCLA honored the legacy of coach John Wooden.
Offense is clearly something Close never has to worry about with her roster, which is why defense becomes such a strong emphasis.
Close with happy with an increase in deflections from the Bruins on Wednesday night, but she knows that it wasn’t their cleanest game despite the box score. That showed in the third quarter, when Purdue put up their game-best 18 points.
“We cannot have a lack of discipline. Period,” Close said of the third quarter. “I need to be able to count on this group to do your job and you saw that in the third quarter. It was a lackadaisical sort of, we were behind every play. It’s very difficult. If it was easy, a lot of teams would do it.”
