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LOS ANGELES — Timea Gardiner works on her 3-point shot after practices, rotating around the perimeter and sinking shot after shot.
She was ready in the corner when Londynn Jones handed her the ball on Sunday night against Michigan State. The junior bent her legs and released a smooth, spinning shot with 43 seconds left that swished to give UCLA a two-point advantage and a much-needed pivotal moment.
“I struggled recently from the three-point line,” Gardiner told reporters. “Kudos to my teammates for finding me in that situation and Londynn for making the extra pass. My teammates’ belief in me is tremendous and that was seen tonight.”
USC handed the UCLA women’s basketball team its first loss of the season on Thursday but the Bruins were able to lean on players like Gardiner three days later and beat No. 22 Michigan State 75-69 — even without star center Lauren Betts, who is day-to-day with a right foot injury.
@haleymsawyer Timea Gardiner hits a corner three to pull UCLA women’s basketball ahead of Michigan State 71-69 with 43 seconds left in the game. UCLA went on to win 75-69. #journalism #reporter #sports #sportsreporter #womenssports #ucla #3pointer #basketball #womensbasketball #collegebasketball
Betts is the second-leading scorer in the Big Ten behind USC’s Juju Watkins and contributes an average of 19.5 points per game while pulling down 9.9 rebounds per game.
“We know and believe that we’re a great team,” point guard Kiki Rice. “Obviously, we wanted to beat SC and that’s what we set out to do. We don’t want to let one loss derail our season because we know the kind of team we are.”
Gardiner drained her corner three to give UCLA a 71-69 advantage. Janiah Barker jumped up for an offensive rebound and dished the ball to Londynn Jones, who handed it off to Gardiner for the shot.
UCLA (24-1 overall, 12-1 Big Ten) closed out the game on a 7-0 run to seal the win.
Six-foot-4 Janiah Barker started at center in her absence and was the game’s leading scorer with 18 points in addition to 12 rebounds, three assists and two steals. Kiki Rice added 16 points and seven assists and Timea Gardiner added 18 points.
It was Barker’s first double-double as a Bruin after transferring from Texas A&M prior to this season.
“She has two chosen intentionally to become one of a group that’s going to help her be the best version of herself,” head coach Cori Close said of Barker.
“She was undoubtedly an x-factor tonight. But for me, it’s watching her fight through the hard. It was tempting to just say forget it, this is too hard. And she didn’t. She showed up the next day and the next.”
Barker and 6-foot-4 forward Angela Dugalić were both active in the post but UCLA still gave up 22 points in the paint in the first half, which was already above the usual average of 19.6 per game.
The Bruins continued to feel the absence of their star center throughout the game. Michigan State (19-6, 9-5) took advantage of lapses in physicality in the paint to score 22 points in the third quarter to take a 55-53 lead at the end of the frame.
Their trapping defense also made it difficult for UCLA to score. The Bruins had five turnovers in the first 15 minutes of the third quarter.
“They’re going to trap, and it’s going to look different every single time they came down,” Close said. “This is a zone trap rotate. It’s high risk, high reward, so it’s harder to control as a coach.”
Freshman Kendall Dudley knocked a shot out of bounds with 2.7 seconds left on the clock to rustle up some defensive enthusiasm heading into the final quarter but UCLA struggled to get rebounds when it counted. The Bruins were in danger of suffering their first set of back-to-back losses since 2023.
Gardiner shot 4-for-7 from beyond the arc and made back-to-back threes in the second quarter to give UCLA a 37-26 lead over the Spartans. She favored a spot just to the left of the key — a shot she has made seemingly thousands of times while shooting around after practice.
Barker shot 5-for-6 in the first half to score 10 points. She snatched the ball off a bad pass by Michigan State and made a fast break layup with 1:39 left to finish off the first half on a strong defensive note before the Spartans took control in the proceeding quarter.
UCLA played well as a team in the first half, passing around the perimeter with fluidity and getting scoring contributions from up and down the bench. They shot 50% from both the field and 3-point range.
“I aged a few years in that game,” Close said. “I am really proud of the confidence and the grit and the toughness that we earned. And we’ve been talking a lot about not relying on your talent or making it look pretty, but doing whatever it takes to find a way to win.”
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