The UCLA Women’s Basketball team needed a victory when they faced Stanford on Sunday and that’s what they got as the Bruins beat the Cardinal 64-53.

The win moves UCLA into a tie for second place with Stanford in the Pac-12 standings. Oregon leads the conference by a game after losing to Oregon State last Friday night.

Monique Billings was named Pac-12 Player of the Week as the result of her play in this game and last Friday’s game against UC Berkeley. Against the Cardinal, Billings scored 18 points and had 8 rebounds. She also reached two milestones in the game against Stanford. She became just the third player in UCLA history with 1,500 points and 1,000 rebounds.

As for the game itself, the UCLA women might want to give the men’s team some lessons about how to come out of the gate. The Bruins outscored the Cardinal 22-10 in the first quarter and that would prove to be enough as Stanford never got any closer than 5 points down. Throughout the rest of the game, every time Stanford started to cut into the Bruins’ lead, UCLA would respond and push the lead back into double digits.

While Billings was busy reaching her milestone, she wasn’t the only bright spot for UCLA. Jordin Canada was her usual self and led all scorers with 21 points. Canada also had 5 assists. Meanwhile, Kennedy Burke added 10 points and Lajahna Drummer led the Bruins in rebounds with 10.

Tonight, UCLA begins what should be their easiest road trip of the season as they will open it against the Washington Huskies who are tied with Arizona for last in the Pac-12. The Huskies have only won one conference game so far this season. The Bruins will follow that up with a game against the Washington State Cougars who have only won two conference games.

So, it should be pretty easy for UCLA to come home with two more wins after this weekend.

This is your UCLA Bruins at Washington Huskies women’s basketball open thread.


Go Bruins!!