During Friday training UCLA women's basketball coach Corey Close made it clear that she wanted to see more from the outside Angela Dugalich.
“You don't use what you earn,” Close recalled telling her during a call with reporters on Friday.
This week Dugalic will face some of the best players in the country. Close thinks she can compete with them, but she needs Dugalich to play the same way. Despite all the work Dugalich has done this offseason on her low-post game, she can't settle for floating around the perimeter.
Close won't let her.
“I just want her to be everything she can be,” Close said. “She was an animal down there, and I want her to hunt for it. I don't want her to settle for playing on the perimeter when she has a lot more tools in her toolbox that she doesn't have access to.”
Close got this version of Dugalich on Sunday's episode. 88-37 rout South in the Pauley Pavilion. The third-seeded Bruins were in total control of the game from whistle to whistle, even posting a shutout in the second quarter as Dugalich led the way with 20 points, five rebounds and an assist. She made eight of 15 from the field with three 3-pointers.
It was pure UCLA dominance. The Bruins shot 51% from the field while holding the Jaguars to 29%. They outscored Southern by 30 points. They committed 13 turnovers, nine in the first half, and scored 28 points. And on offense, UCLA dished out 24 assists to Southern's nine.
Dugalich opened the scoring for UCLA with a mid-range jumper followed by a fast-break layup. She finished the first half with nine points, sharing the team lead with freshman forward Lena Bilic, who finished the game with 14 points.
UCLA guard Kiki Rice controls the ball in front of South forward DeMia Porter during the first half of the Bruins' win Sunday at Pauley Pavilion.
(Ethan Swope/Associated Press)
Gabriela Jaquez added eight rebounds and five assists for six points. Her first basket after breaking through the paint in the second quarter gave the senior guard her 1,000th career point.
The Bruins entered the second quarter with a 22-9 lead thanks to a 14-2 run in the final six minutes of the first quarter after Southern (1-4) was held scoreless for the final three minutes. UCLA then went on a 27–0 run in the second quarter while the Jaguars remained scoreless throughout the period.
Still, Close was not satisfied.
“I'm more interested in the process itself. They missed, we didn't necessarily pick them off,” Close said. “Other people try to beat us, we try to compete to be us.”
UCLA (6-0) faces No. 4 Texas on Wednesday in the Women's Players Era Championship in Las Vegas, followed by No. 2 South Carolina or Duke on Thanksgiving Day. The Bruins will then host No. 15 Tennessee on Nov. 30.
