UCLA Women's Basketball: Star Guard Speaks On How Team Can Adjust Without Lauren Betts

The Bruins' interior has been hurting sans its best player.

Your 17-4 UCLA Bruins women's basketball team has been missing sophomore starting center Lauren Betts, due to an undisclosed medical issue, for the past four contests. The club has gone 2-2 in those games.

Betts, a 6'7" transfer out of Stanford, is the team's leading scorer, at 15.4 points per game (on a country-best 68.3% field goal shooting), and rebounder, at 8.6 rebounds a night.

Per Aaron Heisen of The Pasadena Star-News, Betts remains day-to-day with her ailment. Another sophomore standout, star guard Kiki Rice, recently spoke about how the Bruins intend to weather the storm without Betts: emphasizing guard play.

“We have great guards on this team,” Kiki Rice said last week. “We’ve focused a lot on establishing the post in all of our games so far. Without her, we do have to recognize that, ‘OK, we have to bring back our attack mentality.’”

Head coach Cori Close previously spoke about prioritizing guard play in the absence of Betts, whose efficacy as a scorer inspired her to run much of her offense through Betts in the post.

The 5'11" Rice, a 2023 Pac-12 All-Tourney honoree, is no slouch herself. While starting all 21 games for the ninth-ranked Bruins this year, she's averaging 12.4 points on 43.5% shooting from the floor and 85.7% shooting from the foul line, along with 5.4 rebounds and five dimes.