INDIANAPOLIS — UCLA women’s basketball coach Cori Close challenged her players to arrive at the Big Ten tournament as a tougher, more aggressive group than the one that lost its regular-season finale last weekend to the University of Southern California.
The changes certainly worked in Sunday’s title game as UCLA faced its crosstown archrival again.
The fourth-ranked, second-seeded Bruins dug down and overcame major foul trouble, a huge rebounding disparity, two dozen turnovers, their star player’s first-half struggles and, eventually, a 13-point deficit to beat second-ranked, top-seeded USC 72-67 for their first Big Ten tourney title.
USC and UCLA — along with Oregon and Washington — joined the conference ahead of the current school year ahead as part of the mass exodus from the Pac-12.
“I’m kind of speechless right now,” UCLA center Lauren Betts said after cutting down the nets at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. “I think the work that was done in the dark last week showed today.”