By IlliniGuys Staff

February 20, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - One constant in Illinois' program-record eight-straight Big Ten wins has been stellar ball-handling, as they've averaged just eight turnovers during their success run.

The solid ball-handling - and the win streak - both came to an end Thursday night.

All-American center Lauren Betts scored 22 points and had six of UCLA's season-high 10 blocked shots as the 3rd ranked Bruins turned away the visiting Illini 70-55 in a game that was much tighter than the final score.

"This was a much closer game than 15 points", Illini head coach Shauna Green said on her postgame radio show. "No one has done a better job on the boards and we're much smaller. Hayven (Smith) is 6-6, but everyone else is 6-2 and under and yet we lost the rebounding battle by one (38-37) to the number one rebounding team in the country."

Only Baylor, which grabbed 38 boards in a loss to the Bruins last month, collected more rebounds than Illinois did against the Bruins this season.

Illinois (21-6, 11-5 in Big Ten) never led in their first visit to Pauley Pavilion since 2003, falling behind 10-2 and again at 14-8 before rallying both times. But the Illini went cold in the second quarter, managing just five points from freshman Berry Wallace, getting the first start of her career, in the final eight minutes of the second quarter as UCLA closed the half on a 17-5 run to lead at intermission 32-18.

Illinois committed more turnovers (12) than field goals made (8) in the first 20 minutes.

"The turnovers just killed us", Green lamented.

A Betts free throw opened scoring in the third quarter and gave the Bruins their biggest lead at 33-18.

That's when the Illini went to work, whittling away at the deficit behind Adalia McKenzie. The senior, who played all 40 minutes in the game, scored 10 of her team-high 18 points in the period as Illinois outscored their hosts 21-11 to go into the 4th quarter trailing 43-39.

After five quick points by UCLA (25-1, 13-1), Genesis Bryant delivered a layup and three-pointer to close the gap to 48-44. But the Bruins went on an 8-0 run and held off the Illini down the stretch as they scored the game's last eight points at the free throw line in the final minute of play.

Illinois played short-handed again. Already missing four key players, sophomore guard Jasmine Brown-Hagger was sidelined with an injured hamstring that forced her out of Sunday's win against Nebraska early in the 2nd quarter. That left Illinois with a paper-thin bench, forcing all five starters to play at least 31 minutes.

Despite that, the Illini still had their chances. The top free throw shooting team in the Big Ten managed just 9-of-16 from the line, their worst effort in conference play this season as they scored their lowest number of points in league play this season.

"The name of the game is you gotta make plays, gotta get points," said Green. "We left a lot at the free throw line."

UCLA also scored 17 points off 16 Illinois turnovers.

Wallace finished with 13 points and Bryant had 10, all in the second half. Kendall Bostic just missed her 52nd career double-double with eight points and 11 rebounds as she remains two shy of Jenna Smith's program record.

The loss drops Illinois into a fourth place with Maryland, with whom they own the tiebreaker as both teams vie for the fourth and final triple bye and automatic spot in the quarterfinals in next month's Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis.

Illinois will stay in Los Angeles to face 4th ranked USC on Sunday.  That's a 3pm CST tipoff and can be seen on FS1.