UCLA Women's Basketball: Bruins Will Be Without Several Stars Against Arizona

Your 17-4 UCLA Bruins women's basketball program will be playing with less than a full roster at home tonight against the 12-10 Arizona Wildcats.

For starters, UCLA could be missing its best player.

Per Haley Sawyer of The Pasadena Star-News, sophomore center Lauren Betts is unlikely to play, as she grapples with a still-undisclosed medical condition. She has missed four straight games so far.

Betts is the team's leading scorer at 15.4 points per game (on a college-leading 68.3% field goal shooting rate) and rebounder at 8.6. With her out, head coach Cori Close has been running more of her offense through guard play.

Senior forward Angela Dugalic and sophomore forward Lina Sontag are both with their respective national teams, Serbia and Germany, for this weekend's FIBA 2024 Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Belém, Brazil. Both players will also miss UCLA's Sunday contes against the Arizona State University Sun Devils.

Obviously, there are two other long-term injuries that UCLA can't really help.

As Sawyer notes, 6'4" senior forward Emily Bessoir re-aggravated her ACL after just one game, and will sit out. Another 6'4" senior forward, Izzy Anstey, opted to retire midseason amidst a wave of lingering ailments, though she will continue to travel with UCLA for the duration of the year.

The Bruins' matchup tips off at 8 p.m. PT in Pauley Pavilion.