UCLA Commits Kiki Rice, Gabriela Jaquez Named McDonald’s All-American Game Co-MVPs

Rice led the East with 17 points while fellow incoming Bruin Gabriela Jaquez scored 17 for the West.

While the Bruins were on their way to South Dakota for the WNIT semifinals, two of their future stars were soaking up the spotlight in Chicago.

Guard Kiki Rice and forward Gabriela Jaquez both represented UCLA women's basketball at the McDonald's All-American Girls Game on Tuesday, with Rice's East beating out Jaquez's West by a final score of 95-75. Regardless, both players went home with hardware, as Rice and Jaquez scored 17 points each and wound up getting named co-MVPs for the event.

The two future Bruins are the headliners of the top incoming recruiting class in the country, and they are set to bolster a roster that already boasts key returners in the backcourt and on the block.

For now, though, the two are still high schoolers living thousands of miles apart – Jaquez coming from Camarillo and Rice coming from Washington, DC. So as a preview for their time together in Westwood, the pair met in the middle and put on a show in the Midwest.

"Being a McDonald's All American was a dream of mine for so long," Rice said. "To be co-MVP with my future UCLA teammate just makes the experience so much more special. That was a super fun and exciting past few days. I think the future's bright."

Rice had several highlight plays, but considering she was playing on the opposite side as Jaquez, one naturally came against her future teammate.

The two matched up 1-on-1 on the left wing, with Rice spinning, stepping back and crossing over Jaquez before driving to the baseline and hitting a reverse layup.

Jaquez went 7-of-16 from the field and 2-of-5 from deep with nine rebounds, while Rice went 7-of-10 from the field with five rebounds and four assists. As their two teams leading scorers, the future UCLA standouts sparked the offense on both ends of the floor.

Rice is more than just the No. 2 player in the country and No. 1 guard in her class, as she is the highest-rated prospect to commit to the Bruins in at least the past 15 years. The Sidwell Friends School (DC) product scored 26.8 points per game with 10.7 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 2.3 steals per game as a sophomore in 2019-2020, then ranked third in scoring with 18.8 points per game at the Nike Girls EYGL camp this past July.

Jaquez, the younger sister of UCLA men's basketball guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr., has been setting the record books ablaze in Ventura County, recently breaking 2,000 career points at Camarillo High School (CA). Leading her team to an undefeated record with her 33 points and 15.8 rebounds per game, the 6-foot wing has been a staple of the crowd at Pauley Pavilion for men's and women's games the past few seasons and is the No. 19 player in the country according to espnW.

Point guard Londynn Jones, forward Christeen Iwuala and forward Lina Sontag are the other incoming members of UCLA's 2022 recruiting class.

While none of those three were named All-Americans, two other future Bruins were – guard Amari Bailey and center Adem Bona played in the McDonald's All-American Boys game later Tuesday night.

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