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Home Loss to No. 4 UCLA Highlights 'The Standard' for Nebraska Women

It didn't feel like a blowout, but a 22-point loss to No. 4 UCLA in Lincoln signals that there's still work to do for the Husker women to prove they can contend for any postseason hardware this season.
Spencer Schubert|
Jess Petrie was one of several Huskers who found it hard to hold their own against 6'7 Lauren Betts in UCLA's 83-61 win over Nebraska.
Jess Petrie was one of several Huskers who found it hard to hold their own against 6'7 Lauren Betts in UCLA's 83-61 win over Nebraska. | Nebraska Athletics

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 It was understood that upsetting No. 4 UCLA on Sunday was a tall task, but a 22-point loss to the Bruins added a bit more sting for a Nebraska women’s basketball team that’s now 2-3 in its past five games after starting the season a perfect 12-0.

We’re disappointed,” Nebraska coach Amy Williams said after her team’s 83-61 loss. “We knew that it was going to take a special effort on the boards in order to beat a team like UCLA, and we got outrebounded by 15. I thought that was a really big factor.”

Another really big factor, pun intended, was having to deal with 6-foot-7 Lauren Betts. The UCLA star did it all Sunday, leading all scorers with 18-points in the win, but she also finished with a double-double thanks to her collecting 10 rebounds to go along with her great offensive night. She also unsurprisingly recorded a game-high four blocks.

In their postgame press conference, the Husker players admitted there’s only so much you can do to prepare for a force like Betts in the post. They acknowledged there’s more they should have been able to accomplish against her Sunday, but they also plan to have a short memory and move on.

“There’s a lot we can learn from this,” Nebraska sophomore forward Amiah Hargrove said. “There’s a lot we can grow from, and the Big Ten doesn’t get any easier. No one’s going to feel sorry for you. It’s just learning from our mistakes and seeing what we did well and capitalizing on those things.”

Despite the final score, the game actually felt much closer. UCLA never ran away from the Huskers at any point in the game, but they consistently proved to be the better team. They won both quarters of the first half by six, the third quarter by eight and only edged the Huskers by two in the final frame.

The final score tells you it’s a blowout, but if you watched the game, there’s reason for hope for Amy Williams’ bunch.

“It just kind of feels like it’s a slow bleed in a game like this,” Williams said. “It wasn’t necessarily one huge run that I can put my finger on, but more kind of a couple reactions after negative plays on offense that led to transition runout or offensive rebound kickout.”

UCLA looked the part of a top team in the country on Sunday with six total players in double figures. Where the game ultimately swung was on the glass, where the Bruins outrebounded the Huskers 43-28, with 16 of the 43 being off the offensive glass.

When you give a team like UCLA that many second chances, it’s a recipe for disaster. It didn’t help that Nebraska wasn’t able to keep up, as the offense struggled early and often against a UCLA defense that seemed to be ready for Nebraska’s primary scorers.

“I thought we were pretty glued to our game plan, then a couple things happened offensively where we were not getting the shots that we wanted or we might have some turnovers, then all of a sudden that leads to a few runout lay-ups, and it just is a little bit deflating,” Williams said.

The story can best be told in the night sophomore guard Britt Prince had. The Husker star finished with just six points in the loss, which comes less than a year removed from the last time these two teams faced off in the Big Ten Tournament.

In that game, UCLA pulled away for an 11-point win over the Huskers, but then-freshman Britt Prince had herself a ballgame. Prince poured in a team-leading 24 points in the game, while only two other players reached double figures in the game. The performance was certainly still fresh in the memory for the senior-laden Bruins this time around.

“It’s not a surprise that they were keying on her so much,” Williams said of UCLA’s game plan for Prince Sunday. “I feel like Britt is such a competitor that there’s just zero doubt in my mind that she’ll be hungry. She’ll be chomping at the bit to get in with our coaching staff to break down some film to figure out ‘how can I continue to stay aggressive-minded offensively? Where can I get some opportunities to score for myself, but also make better reads off ball screens, etc.’”

Britt Prince struggled against #4 UCLA Sunday, tallying just six points in the 22-point loss to the Bruins.
Britt Prince struggled against No. 4 UCLA Sunday, tallying just six points in the 22-point loss to the Bruins. | Nebraska Athletics

The Huskers now have a few days to digest the loss and grow from it before they’re back on the road Thursday against another top team in the country in No. 15 Michigan State before swinging over to Madison to take on Wisconsin nearly a week later.

Sunday was a reminder of the standard required to compete with the nation’s best, especially on the glass and in moments where small mistakes snowball. But it also reinforced that Nebraska is not far off. If the Huskers can turn this “slow bleed” into sharper execution and tougher responses, the opportunity to prove it comes in just a few days.

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Spencer Schubert
SPENCER SCHUBERT

Spencer Schubert is a born-and-raised Nebraskan who now calls Hastings home. He grew up in Kearney idolizing the Huskers as every kid in Nebraska did in the 1990s, and he turned that passion into a career of covering the Big Red. Schubert graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2009, and kickstarted what's now become a 17 year career in journalism. He's served in a variety of roles in broadcasting, including weekend sports anchor at KHGI-TV(NTV) in Kearney, Sports Director at WOAY-TV in West Virginia and Assistant News Director, Executive Producer and Evening News Anchor for KSNB-TV(Local4) in Hastings. Off the clock, you'll likely find Schubert with a golf club in his hand and spending time with his wife, 5-year-old daughter and dog Emmy.

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