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No. 1 UCLA women’s basketball uniting under harsh circumstances

The No. 1 UCLA women’s basketball team, along with a handful of guests, were on a flight back from Indiana when two donors discovered that their home was at risk of being destroyed by one of the fires that had swelled in Southern California.

Players rushed to comfort the donors, swathing them in oversized hugs, as soon as they had deplaned – doing all they could to offer some sense of protection.

“That’s what Bruins do. We show up for each other,” head coach Cori Close said Friday on a Zoom call, with tears in her eyes. “We get in the trenches together and we’re gonna love each other well, we’re gonna humbly be thankful for what we play, and we’re gonna try to focus on our next right step.”

The fire swallowed up the donors’ home. The scene after the plane ride and moments after have brought the Bruins together under some of the harshest circumstances possible at a time when Close wants her team to play as one.

Sunday’s game between UCLA (16-0 overall, 5-0 Big Ten) and Northwestern has been postponed, but Wednesday’s contest against Penn State (9-7, 0-5) at Pauley Pavilion is still proceeding as scheduled and the team is preparing accordingly.

The Bruins, with a mix of players from California as well as out of state, have handled the events of the week with a range of reactions. Gabriela Jaquez, who is from Camarillo, had been through fires before and knew how to mentally cope. Another unnamed player from out of state compared the experience to being in Kansas for the first time and hearing a faraway tornado warning.

Kiki Rice, who is from Washington, D.C., had her first wildfire experience.

“It’s so devastating how close it is to us,” Rice said. “People close to this program have lost homes. We’re praying for everyone and everyone’s safety. And for me, I think it’s really an opportunity for me to remember how grateful I am to have everything that we have. We get to come out here, still play basketball, still do what we love.”

The schedule since returning from the Bruins’ victory over Purdue on Tuesday night was jostled due to UCLA class cancelations. An extra layer of anxiety was added when Close and assistant coach Tony Newman found out their homes were on the edge of evacuation zones.

Jaquez and Rice attended in-person classes Wednesday and Thursday before undergrad classes were called off Thursday night and all day Friday. Practice resumed Friday morning.

“It’s nice to be back in the gym, especially after two days off,” Rice said. “We had a long road trip, so it was nice to get that rest. But whenever we have two days off, we’re happy to be back in the gym practicing competing, getting out there.”

The Bruins stayed in touch throughout the week by phone and FaceTime and staff did nightly check-ins to make sure players felt comforted. But the sense of team had been amplified even before they left the state of Indiana.

UCLA was staying at a hotel six minutes from Indiana’s Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The bus ride to the arena, however, took 47 minutes after the driver had gotten lost.

“We had hardly any time to warm up,” Close said of the Bruins’ victory over the Hoosiers on Jan. 4. “We were totally out of routine and just seeing them use the language of all that we’ve taught them in terms of, ‘Hey, next right step, neutral thinking,’ that’s where we go to. I don’t think we played our best basketball against Indiana, but I thought it was a very business-like approach. We will find a way to win.”

In the Bruins’ next game against Purdue, four players scored on each of UCLA’s first four possessions.

“That’s just one example on how we’re very hard to guard and it could be anyone’s night,” Jaquez said. “That’s what we understand and we’re willing to put the team first and do whatever it takes.”

Close was pleased with how the Bruins have lowered opponents’ 3-point shooting percentages but would like to see better rebounding, off-ball screens and consistency in communication as she continues to coach her team hard.

Penn State isn’t nationally ranked, but they have some of the best defense in the Big Ten, ranking fifth in the conference with 9.9 steals and 4.6 blocks per game.

Gracie Merkle, a 6-foot-6 center, leads the Nittany Lions with 31 blocks in 16 games and is also the team’s leading scorer with 16.8 points per game. Six-foot guard Alli Campbell is the top player in terms of steals with 28 and four other players have recorded at least 20 steals this season.

UCLA is locked in on playing as a team while processing the emotions of the previous days. While the Bruins can’t provide the 6-foot-tall hugs that were given to donors for all of Southern California, they’re spreading support in the next best way they know how.

“We’ve been trying to be honest about the realities of our situations and everyone’s feelings are valued,” Close said, “and at the same time, not feeling guilty to continue to commit to our craft and to give to each other and play the game we love because we also know that’s a way to bring joy to others, too.”