No. 2 UCLA basketball remains undefeated this season, in no small part due to Kiki Rice’s contributions against No. 6 UConn. 

The sophomore guard dropped 24 points en route to her program’s first-ever win against the Huskies. She also grabbed 11 rebounds and eight assists. She led her squad to its fifth win of the season in its toughest match so far, 78-67. 

“We wanted her to come out with an attack mentality,” UCLA head coach Cori Close said to Michael Voepel. “She has put so much work in. She’s just been a rock star for us.” 

Charisma Osborne and Lauren Betts also showed out at  the Cayman Islands Classic with 18 and 13 points, respectively. 

“We really were confident that if we executed the game plan, that we were going to win,” Close said to the Associated Press. “I say that with great respect (for UConn) but I really believe in what this team is building.”

Paige Bueckers had a standout night for the Huskies, leading all scorers with her 31 points — almost half of UConn’s total. But no one else on the team scored more than 11 points. And head coach Geno Auriemma does not believe that is enough to win games. 

“You can’t beat a really good team with one player,” Auriemma said. “It was disappointing that we didn’t get more contributions from more people. Our combinations are all screwed up right now, so that’s got to get sorted out.. We struggled, we had our runs, we just didn’t have enough.”

Former No. 1 recruit Lauren Betts is transferring to UCLA from Stanford, and the balance of women’s basketball power in California could be shifting with her.

With the transfer decision, the Bruins will have the No. 1 and No. 2 prospects from the 2022 class, with Betts joining Bruins guard Kiki Rice.

Rice made the Pac-12 all-freshman team in 2023, averaging 11.6 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists en route to UCLA’s first NCAA Sweet 16 appearance since 2019 — making it one round farther than Stanford, which lost in the second round. UCLA also upset Stanford in the semifinals of the Pac-12 tournament.

The addition of a 6-foot-7 center in Betts makes UCLA an even bigger threat in the upcoming season, particularly as seniors Charisma Osborne and Camryn Brown have announced they will be staying for a fifth year.

Osborne originally declared the draft but withdrew her name to stay with the Bruins. She has been a major part of the Bruins lineup, averaging 15.9 points and 5.9 rebounds per game last season.

Additionally, the team will add McDonald’s All-American forward Amanda Muse as a highly-touted recruit.

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A post shared by Lauren Betts (@laurenmariebetts)

The postseason is less than one month away, and with it comes a slew of awards, including Freshman of the Year.

DePaul forward Aneesah Morrow won the award last year after a breakout season. In 2020-21, Iowa’s Caitlin Clark of Iowa and UConn’s Paige Bueckers were co-recipients. This year’s recipient will join some elite recent company.

Just Women’s Sports breaks down the top six candidates for 2023 Freshman of the Year.

Ta’Niya Latson, Florida State

There have been some great freshman performances so far this season, but it’s hard for many of them to truly compare with Florida State’s 5-foot-8 guard. Not only is Latson leading the freshman class in scoring, she’s also No. 8 among all players in the country with 21.9 points per game. She also contributes 4.5 rebounds and three assists per game, while shooting 46 percent from the field. She’s led Florida State to a No. 19 ranking and wins over ranked ACC teams Duke, NC State and North Carolina.

Latson is a prolific scorer, but her best attribute this season has been consistency. The guard has scored fewer than 10 points just once this season, while also hitting the 30-point mark six times in 27 games. Highlights include 31 points in an overtime victory over NC State and 21 points, eight rebounds, six assists and two steals in Florida State’s upset of UNC.

Several players have cases for Freshman of the Year, but none mean as much to their team as Latson does to Florida State. With less than a month left in the regular season, she is the frontrunner for the award.

Kiki Rice, UCLA

The No. 2 recruit in the country came to UCLA with a lot of hype and has handled it with poise. Rice knows she isn’t the main option for the Bruins (that mantle belongs to senior guard Charisma Osborne), but she plays her secondary role in a positive way, doing a bit of everything for her team. Rice is averaging 11.5 points per game, 4.8 rebounds, 3.3 assists and a team-high 1.3 steals.

Kiki Rice. That's it, that's the tweet.

📺: Pac-12 Networks
📲: https://t.co/FONoGTkJ32 #GoBruins | @kiki_rice0 pic.twitter.com/bhBCKAYiMq

— UCLA W. Basketball (@UCLAWBB) February 12, 2023

Rice has been a starter for UCLA since Game 1 this season, and she adjusted to the college game seamlessly. On Nov. 20, against a long, athletic Tennessee squad, Rice responded with 15 points, six rebounds, six assists and two steals to help her team secure an upset win. The guard also held her own in a close contest with South Carolina, recording 16 points and five rebounds.

Cotie McMahon, Ohio State

Despite coming in as a highly-touted recruit, McMahon likely wasn’t expecting to play such a big role this season on a stacked Ohio State team. But injuries to Jacy Sheldon and Madison Greene meant the Buckeyes didn’t have time to ease McMahon into a bigger role. She had to take it right away, and the forward has delivered. In 26.4 minutes per game, McMahon is averaging 14 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.6 steals per game.

Q3 | @cotiemcmahon23 splits the defenders for an old-fashioned three-point play!#GoBucks pic.twitter.com/VnlPQGJlky

— Ohio State WBB (@OhioStateWBB) February 14, 2023

The forward has done everything Ohio State has asked of her while adding a new element to their offense. She brings physicality to the court and is able to drive and create, serving as a good complement to shooters like Taylor Mikesell and post players like Rebeka Mikulasikova. Even in games where Ohio State has struggled, McMahon has often been a bright spot. She held her own in losses to top opponents, Iowa and Indiana, recording 21 points in each contest.

Grace VanSlooten, Oregon

Oregon has had a steep decline in recent weeks, dropping 10 of their last 14 games after starting the season 10-1 and climbing into the Top 25. But while the Ducks have had trouble in a difficult Pac-12 conference, Vanslooten has not. She’s second on the team in scoring with 14.5 points and second in rebounds with 6.2 per contest. The 6-3 forward has produced those numbers in a league with experienced post players defending her.

VanSlooten doesn’t shy away from top competition, recording a career-high 29 points on Dec. 21 in a loss to then-No. 3 Ohio State, while also grabbing nine rebounds for a near-double-double. Other highlights include 17 points and 11 boards against UNC, and 17 points and eight rebounds against UCLA.

Flau’jae Johnson, LSU

When LSU plays, eyes are on the duo of Angel Reese and Alexis Morris, but Johnson has developed into a reliable third option for the Tigers. She’s averaging 12.5 points per game and is second on the team in rebounding with 6.3 per game, despite being just 5-10. She’s also blocking one shot per game, which speaks to the energy, effort and athleticism she brings to the court. Johnson even has three double-doubles this season on points and rebounds.

Johnson showed her variety of skills in a win over UAB on Nov. 26, finishing with 19 points, 13 rebounds, three assists and three steals. The guard was then crucial in a close 79-76 victory over Arkansas on Jan. 19, when she contributed 19 points and six rebounds. (Unrelated to the award debate: Johnson also has world-class talent off the court.)

Darianna Littlepage-Buggs, Baylor

Like VanSlooten of Oregon, Littlepage-Buggs will have a tough time winning this award because of her team’s struggles. But also like Vanslooten, Littlepage-Buggs has been a consistent bright spot for her team. The 6-1 forward is averaging a near-double-double with 9.9 points and 9.3 rebounds per contest. She’s also efficient in her attempts, shooting 51.3 percent from the field.

Littlepage-Buggs has clearly impressed coach Nicki Collen, who has called on the talented freshman to start in 19 of her team’s 24 games. Even when she doesn’t start, Littlepage-Buggs is a fixture on the court for the Bears, playing 24.8 minutes per contest. In a recent win over a tough Kansas squad, she played 30 minutes off the bench and finished with 12 points and a team-high 10 rebounds.

Eden Laase is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @eden_laase.

UCLA ended the year on a high note Friday with a 82-74 win over No. 17 Oregon but appeared to lose their leading scorer to injury.

The No. 10 Bruins were led by freshman Kiki Rice, who had a career-high 21 points and seven assists in the win. The guard went 6-for-9 from the floor in the first half and, with Friday’s performance, improved her shooting percentage to 54.5 over UCLA’s last three games.

UCLA head coach Cori Close, while happy with her team’s grit, wanted to see more from them on the other side of the ball.

“We didn’t play extremely smart, we have to work on decision-making, but we won on guts and toughness and determination,” Close said. “I told them ‘Thank goodness for that.’ We play real hard and when we combine that with playing smarter, we can be real special. We are not there yet, but we have so much potential.”

Senior guard Charisma Osborne exited the game in the fourth quarter after taking a hit to the shoulder. The WNBA draft prospect added 17 points before leaving.

Close was unsure of Osborne’s status after the game but hoped she wouldn’t be sidelined for long.

“A road win over a ranked team when our best player goes out and we withstand a run, then regroup and find a way to get the job done, those are huge things,” Close said. “We play a lot of freshmen a lot of minutes and these situations teach them so much so that is huge.”

Kiki Rice is officially a Jordan athlete.

The Jordan Brand has made the UCLA freshman its first signing of the name, image and likeness era in college basketball.

“Being Jordan Brand’s first NIL athlete is an incredible milestone, and I think it’s a testament to the hard work I’ve put in and all the people around me who have helped me get to this point,” Rice said in a statement. “Signing with the Jordan Brand is another motivating factor for me to continue to work hard and achieve my goals.”

Rice, who was named the Gatorade Athlete of the Year back in July, also was named Just Women’s Sports’ inaugural high school Basketball Player of the Year in March after leading Sidwell Friends to its first city championship in Washington, D.C. Wasserman represents the basketball player for all NIL deals.

The freshman said joining the Jordan Brand “doesn’t even seem real yet,” as it’s a brand she looked up to a lot as a kid.

“Growing up, I used to scroll through Jordan Brand’s website and see the athletes they had, or watch TV and be like, ‘Oh, they’re a Jordan Brand athlete,’” she said. “To now be one of them, it’s a dream come true and something I never really thought would happen. Now that it’s official, it’s the best thing that could have ever happened, and I’m so excited for the future.”

As a passionate advocate for gender equity, Rice also appreciates that Jordan Brand made their first NIL signing a women’s basketball player. Jordan Brand will collaborate with Rice on efforts to support her community, for example on improving opportunities in sport for girls.

“I experienced first hand a lot of inequity, and I think leveling the playing field between boys and girls at a young age is something that I’m really passionate about in terms of helping bridge the gap,” Rice said.

LOS ANGELES — Kiki Rice has racked up enough individual awards this year to cover the hardwood from baseline to free-throw line.

The incoming UCLA freshman added to her collection Tuesday night when she was named the 2022 Gatorade Female Athlete of the Year, an honor she described as the most meaningful of all her accolades thus far.

Clutching the shiny metal “G” trophy, Rice said she did not expect to win and thanked her parents and coaches. She also thanked Gatorade for an “incredible experience,” during which she and her fellow athletes were treated “like stars” over the past few days.

“Winning Gatorade Athlete of the Year, amongst all the other incredible athletes, it’s an awesome honor,” Rice said. “It’s a testament to the hard work I’ve put in and the forces around me.”

The two-sport star made her biggest mark on the court, averaging 15.8 points, 7.0 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game her senior season for Sidwell Friends School (D.C.) and leading her team to a 30-0 record and a national championship. In March, she was named Just Women’s Sports’ inaugural high school basketball Player of the Year.

Rice was also the D.C. Gatorade Girls Soccer Player of the Year. She credits playing soccer with helping her footwork in basketball and keeping her in shape. Rice said she’s in peak condition by the time basketball season comes around because soccer season is right before, and that requires a lot of running.

“For a few months of the year, focusing a little less on basketball and having some time to be with a new group of people, play under different coaches and enjoy a different sport is really valuable,” Rice said. “I definitely encourage athletes to continue to play multiple sports as long as you can. It shows you don’t need to specialize at such a young age. There are still opportunities there.”

Rice, who moved into her Westwood dorm less than two weeks ago and signed with Wasserman for NIL representation, is interested in sports business but has not yet decided on a major. She’s received plenty of buzz throughout her prep career, gaining more than 35,000 followers on Instagram before even playing a college game.

Off the court, she sees college as “an opportunity to grow in different areas, take interesting classes, meet new people and dabble.” Rice has found the basketball adjustment from high school to be a challenge, adding that she loves to compete.

“What’s not to love about L.A.?” Rice said of her first couple of weeks living in Southern California. “And the campus is super nice.”

.@kiki_rice0 and @ColinSahlman are LEGIT! They are your new Gatorade Athletes of the Year 🏆⚡️#GatoradePartner

— Gatorade (@Gatorade) July 20, 2022

As a high school star, Rice had no shortage of college suitors, including Stanford, UConn, Duke and Arizona.

Ultimately, the 18-year-old chose UCLA because she felt the school’s coaches would best be able to help her develop into the professional basketball player she hopes to become. She also cited the strong connections she built with players and coaches on her official visit to Westwood last year.

Rice will now be coached by UCLA’s Cori Close, a former standout point guard herself who averaged 15.4 points and 8.3 assists per game her senior season at UC Santa Barbara.

“Coach Cori does a great job of motivating me, and she holds me accountable,” Rice said. “I’m going to grow a ton under her, so I’m really excited about the next four years.”

When asked about the Bruins’ stacked 2022 recruiting class, before the question was finished, Rice excitedly pointed out that UCLA boasts the No. 1 class in the nation. The group includes two guards, Gabriela Jaquez and Londynn Jones, with whom Rice has already won. She and Jaquez shared co-MVP honors at the 2022 McDonald’s All-American Game, while Rice and Jones won gold for Team USA this summer at the FIBA U18 Americas Championship. Rice took home MVP honors, while Jones contributed 15 points. The Bruins have three incoming freshmen ranked by ESPN in the top 25, and post player Christeen Iwuala from Texas gives them four slotted inside the top 50.

According to Rice, the McDonald’s game foreshadowed what lies ahead in Westwood this coming season.

“We have a ton of talent, and the fact that we were both able to shine in a game like that shows there really is a bright future at UCLA,” she said. “Gabs is an incredible player who has a high basketball IQ.”

Rice is pleased with the entire incoming freshman group so far and is most impressed by everyone’s willingness to learn and accept constructive criticism.

“We’re all coming from being the best players on our high school and AAU teams,” she said. “To come in a new environment and still have a ton to learn can be difficult at times, but we’ve done a great job so far. I’m excited for this group because we’re going to be really good.”

Before Rice has played a single game at the collegiate level, her talent is no secret. Stanford star Haley Jones, who met Rice on her official visit to Palo Alto last year, described the incoming freshman as an “amazing player and person.”

“There’s a reason she won the National Player of the Year Award — she does it all,” Jones said with a smile. “I’ll see her in the Pac this year, so that’ll be exciting.”

Joshua Fischman is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering Angel City FC and the Los Angeles Sparks. He has covered basketball for Vantage Sports and Hoops Rumors and served as co-host of “On the NBA Beat” podcast. Joshua received his master’s in Sports Media from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Follow him on Twitter @JJTheJuggernaut.

UCLA incoming freshman Kiki Rice has signed with Wasserman for NIL representation, with the company announcing the news Thursday.

Welcome to the #TeamWass family, @kiki_rice0!

Check out this thread for a look at just some of what Kiki has accomplished in this year alone (and she's just getting started).

THREAD 1/3 pic.twitter.com/8WLVtfPbzi

— Wasserman (@Wasserman) July 8, 2022

The Sidwell Friends guard joins UCLA with a long high school resume, winning nearly every award there is to win.

In 2022, Rice was named the Just Women’s Sports High School Basketball Player of the Year, Gatorade National Player of the Year, Naismith Prep Player of the Year, Morgan Wootten National Player of the Year and McDonald’s All-American Game co-MVP. She enters college with plenty of hype after averaging 26.8 points, 10.7 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 2.3 steals per game as a senior.

Rice joins the likes of UConn superstar Paige Bueckers on Wasserman’s athlete roster.

First, there was shock.

Just hours earlier, they had all been together in Chicago, at the Jordan Brand Classic game, a showcase for the top 26 basketball players in the class of 2022. At the center of it all, as is often the case at these gatherings among the nation’s elite, was Aaliyah Gayles, the Spring Valley High School (Nevada) point guard, USC commit and owner of the group’s most contagious smile.

Then came fear.

The news spread on social media: Gayles had been shot at a house party in Las Vegas. Her condition was unclear. The four- and five-star recruits bounced into each others’ Instagram DMs, frantically trading what little information they had. It was Sunday night.

“When you see multiple gunshot wounds, you don’t know,” Sidwell Friends (D.C.) point guard Kiki Rice said. “You assume it’s bad.”

“It just broke my heart,” Homestead (Fort Wayne, Ind.) wing Ayanna Patterson said.

“This can’t be real. Not Aaliyah, not Aaliyah,” Hopkins (Minnetonka, Minn.) forward Maya Nnaji said she thought.

Finally, as the school week progressed, there came some relief.

Gayles had been shot 10 times, including eight times in the legs and ankles, but her injuries were not life-threatening. She underwent three surgeries and is expected to make a “full recovery.” Doctors were hopeful Gayles would be able to learn how to walk again from rehabilitation.

Her basketball future, however, is less certain.

What happened to Gayles at a Las Vegas house party on Saturday night will take time to process, for Gayles, her family and her loved ones. Among those impacted are the girls from across the country who’ve gotten to know the springy guard over the years, who’ve been her direct competitors for awards, rankings and scholarship offers.

Instead of enemies, they’ve become friends, forming a basketball sisterhood whose bond was strengthened at the Jordan game and the McDonald’s All-American Game, also in Chicago, on March 29. Gayles, with her flashy handles and flashier dance moves, had become the group’s purveyor of joy, on and off the court.

So, for the girls who’ve come to know Gayles, the past week was a rollercoaster of emotions: Shock. Fear. Relief. And something else less quantifiable, but just as visceral.

“It makes me want to go out there and compete even harder,” Nnaji said, “for her.”

***

Class of 2022 good luck to all you ladies ✌🏾 pic.twitter.com/8s5UCa3FvY

— D.Gayles (@DGayles3) April 17, 2022

The moment that best encapsulates Gayles, her friends said, came on March 28, the evening before the McDonald’s game. The 24 girls had just been awarded their All-American rings, and were being called to load back on the bus for the hotel.

Gayles had another idea.

She saw a DJ and a dance floor. It was time, she decided, to dance.

“She was dancing so hard,” Nnaji said. “She was going crazy!”

With her “West Coast flavor,” as Patterson put it, Gayles urged the rest of the girls to join her on the floor. Soon she and Janiah Barker, the 6-foot-2 forward from Montverde (Fla.) committed to Texas A&M, were sweating through their white T-shirts, and Iman Shumpert, the NBA shooting guard from 2011-21, was dancing by their side.

Rice, winner of the JWS Player of the Year award and several other national honors, is the most celebrated name in the class. But Rice, who does not identify as a “good dancer,” was not too proud to admit she could learn something from Gayles.

“We were joking about how she needed to teach me how to dance,” Rice said.

Rice first met Gayles, she said, in eighth grade, at the Blue Star 30 camp in Las Vegas. Same with Patterson, who recalled that Gayles took control of an impromptu dance circle at the camp despite being among the youngest players in attendance.

“She wants everyone to feel as happy as she is,” Nnaji said. “She’s always trying to get other people to smile.”

That also applies to the court, where Gayles has built a reputation among her peers for her ankle-breaking handles and calls for the crowd to make noise. In a practice ahead of the McDonald’s game, she successfully threw a between-the-legs lob to Patterson. The same behavior from a lesser-liked player might evoke bitterness, but not Gayles, who averaged 13.8 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.5 steals and 3.3 assists for Spring Valley this past season.

On Monday night, a local parent set up a GoFundMe page to help Gayles’ family pay for medical expenses. Several of the players Gayles has met on the national scene from the class of 2022, Patterson said, donated $22 each as an act of solidarity.

Gayles will probably spend about two months in a wheelchair, former Spring Valley coach Billy Hemberger (he left to take the head job at Liberty this month) told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. But Gayles was in good spirits, he said.

Still, questions remain about her future, as well as what happened Saturday night. Her father, Dwight, wrote in a since-deleted tweet that Gayles normally doesn’t attend house parties.

“For the record my kid hates house parties,” he wrote. “Anybody that knows her knows that. She was simply returning a favor to a friend that came to her birthday party and within (minutes) of being there this happened.”

It’s all still a little difficult for Rice, a UCLA signee, to wrap her head around. Will she ever get to play against Gayles in Pac-12 rivalry games, as they had talked about?

Rice, Gayles and a few other girls rode on the same bus to the airport Saturday morning. Gayles told Rice she was going to head straight to the gym from the airport. She didn’t hear about a party.

The next day, it was Rice who told Patterson what had happened. Patterson, who is bound for UConn, did not have a workout scheduled for Monday, but after school she hopped in her car and drove 30 minutes to her father’s facility, the McMillan Park Community Center in Fort Wayne.

Patterson threw up shot after shot, seemingly alone. Though the ball was flying off Patterson’s fingertips, she felt like someone else was taking the shots.

“This,” Patterson said, “is her moment.”

Josh Needelman is the High School Sports Editor at Just Women’s Sports. Follow him on Twitter @JoshNeedelman.

Kiki Rice, the No. 2 basketball prospect in the country, has committed to UCLA.

Continuing to write my script in Westwood ⁣🐻💙💛
⁣#NextChapter ⁣ pic.twitter.com/VPe1dQdQXv

— Kiki Rice (@kiki_rice0) November 4, 2021

Her commitment makes her the highest-ranked prospect to commit to UCLA since ESPN’s HoopGurlz recruiting database was created in 2007.

The point guard is a two-time USA Basketball gold medalist and was named District of Columbia state player of the year in both basketball and soccer. She had narrowed down her list of schools to Stanford, UConn, Duke and Arizona alongside UCLA. Ultimately, UCLA won out, in what amounts to a boost to both the Bruins and the Pac-12 at large.

Kiki Rice, the No. 2 player in the country, is heading to UCLA 😈 @kiki_rice0 @UCLAWBB pic.twitter.com/jBjQzdOlOZ

— WSLAM (@wslam) November 4, 2021

“A winning culture is super important,” Rice told WSLAM. “I wanna go somewhere where we’re gonna be competing for national championships every year.

“To be at a school where that’s demanded and that’s expected is, I think, super important.”

Additionally, having a close knit team is important, with Rice adding that she wants to make friends for life while also surrounding herself with a good team culture.

“Hopefully they’re gonna be some of my lifelong friends,” she said.

With both of her parents having gone to and played sports at Yale and her brother, Teo Rice, currently on the basketball team there, Rice said education is something that is important to both her and her family.

Rice is finishing up her final year of high school and will attend UCLA next fall.