{"id":39156,"date":"2025-11-05T13:11:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T13:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/39156\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T13:11:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T13:11:18","slug":"san-diego-state-falls-to-no-3-ucla-in-womens-basketball-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/39156\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego State falls to No. 3 UCLA in women’s basketball opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANAHEIM \u2014 Lauren Betts scored 21 points on 9 of 12 shooting and No. 3 UCLA routed San Diego State 77-53 on Monday night in the teams\u2019 season opener.<\/p>\n

Gabriela Jaquez added 15 points, 11 rebounds and five assists, and former Pac-12 freshman of the year Charlisse Leger-Walker had 12 points and five assists for the Bruins in what was billed as the Orange County Hoops Classic. They made the 44-mile trip to Honda Center in Orange County on the same night the 12th-ranked Bruins men\u2019s team opened at Pauley Pavilion.<\/p>\n

The Bruins are coming off a Final Four appearance last season.<\/p>\n

Six of UCLA\u2019s first eight games will be played at neutral sites, including two visits to Las Vegas in a three-week span.<\/p>\n

Kaelyn Hamilton scored 11 points, and Nat Martinez and Nala Williams had 10 each for the Aztecs. They were better in 3-point shooting than the Bruins, hitting 10 of 25, with Hamilton making three.<\/p>\n

\"UCLAUCLA center Lauren Betts celebrates scoring a basket against San Diego State in the Orange County Hoops Classic on Monday, Nov. 3, 2025, at the Honda Center. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Contributing Photographer)<\/p>\n

Betts got double-teamed most of the game, but at 6-foot-7, she was the tallest player on the court and often outmuscled the Aztecs\u2019 defense down low. The Bruins controlled the boards, 49-25, with Amanda Muse grabbing seven off the bench.<\/p>\n

The Bruins broke the game open in the third, opening with a 16-2 run that produced a 29-point lead, their largest of the game. Jaquez had seven points and Betts had six. The Aztecs closed the quarter by outscoring the Bruins 14-5, but still trailed 58-38.<\/p>\n

The Bruins were without touted freshman\u00a0Sienna Betts, younger sister of Lauren, and Timea Gardiner, the team\u2019s leading 3-point shooter last season who has a knee injury. Betts hurt her lower left leg in a scrimmage.<\/p>\n

The Bruins beat the Aztecs for the seventh straight time and lead the all-time series 26-6.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

San Diego State hosts Cal State San Marcos on Saturday.<\/p>\n

UCLA hosts UC Santa Barbara in the Bruins\u2019 home opener on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANAHEIM \u2014 Lauren Betts scored 21 points on 9 of 12 shooting and No. 3 UCLA routed San…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1327,181,74,76,75,305,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-39156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-college-sports","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-san-diego","11":"tag-san-diego-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego-news","13":"tag-sdsu-aztecs","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}