LONG BEACH — UCLA did all it could to create a home environment inside of Long Beach State’s Walter Pyramid on Wednesday night. The Bruins’ top-ranked women’s basketball team brought its DJ and game operations crew. Blue lights shined from the ceiling and a blue “LA Strong” graphic stretched across the video board. The game between UCLA and Penn State was relocated from Pauley Pavilion to LBSU due to concerns about the ongoing wildfires across Southern California. It wasn’t the last of the adjustments for the evening – the Bruins had to lock down on defense in the second quarter to take control on their way to an 83-67 victory over the Nittany Lions. “I personally think it was an off week with everything that was going on,” forward Angela Dugalić said. “It was just really weird for me. But again, we’ve had games where we’ve had a week off. This is a different circumstance but at the same time, it shouldn’t have affected us the way it did.” @haleymsawyer UCLA women’s basketball has relocated its game against Penn State to Walter Pyramid in Long Beach due to the effects of the ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles. #ucla #womensbasketball #basketball #sports #sportsreporter #journalism #reporter #ncaabasketball #collegebasketball #longbeach #pennstate #wildfires #lafire ♬ Just Wanna Rock – Lil Uzi Vert The unbeaten Bruins, sitting atop the national rankings for the eighth consecutive week, improved to 17-0 overall (6-0 Big Ten), the best start to a season in program history. Lauren Betts finished with 22 points on 10-of-16 shooting to go with 12 rebounds and seven blocked shots. Dugalić had 11 points and eight rebounds, Kiki Rice contributed 10 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals and Gabriela Jaquez added 10 points and seven rebounds. Penn State (9-9, 0-7) led by six points early in the first quarter and Allie Campbell poured in eight points to help the Lions keep that lead. The Bruins shot just 41.2% in the opening quarter (0 for 8 from 3-point range), while Penn State appeared comfortable in the nearly-neutral environment. “An interesting stat that our strength coach told us at halftime was that first quarter was the lowest load of the year,” head coach Cori Close said. “(That’s) the intensity load that’s measured by the data that we wear and measures our change of direction and explosive movements. And I think that’s very reflective. We just weren’t the aggressors.” Things changed in the second quarter when UCLA switched to a press and generated offense with its defense. Timea Gardner chipped in five points and her jumper gave the Bruins their first lead of the game at 26-25. The Bruins closed out the first half on an 8-0 run, and Betts came up with two big blocks to generate scoring opportunities. Dugalic quickly got down court to receive a pass for a layup after the first one and Betts rebounded a missed 3-point shot after her second block. UCLA outscored Penn State 27-11 in the second and took a 44-30 lead to the locker room at halftime. “We weren’t playing as hard and we weren’t sitting in our stance and we weren’t fighting and being physical with them,” Close said. “As soon as we came out and started getting stops and then getting clean outlets, we were able to play in transition. We started turning them over and then we were able to play the kind of style that we want to play.” UCLA extended its lead to 16 by the end of the third quarter, but Penn State surged to get within 69-62 with 5:41 remaining in the game. UCLA head coach Cori Close called a timeout with two minutes left and urged her team to seize 50-50 balls. The Bruins hit the gas in the final minutes and used a 7-0 run to secure the win. “We didn’t show up the way we needed to today,” Betts said. “I’m not trying to crap all over my team. I just think that in practice, I thought preparing for this game, we could have done a little better.” Gabby Elliot scored 10 points in the second half to lead Penn State’s charge but the Bruins held Lions leading scorer Gracie Merkle (16.5 ppg) to five points for the night. This was the first time a UCLA women’s basketball home game had been moved to another location. Games were either postponed or canceled during the COVID-19 pandemic and a Pauley Pavilion water main break in 2013 occurred outside of the season. The Bruins warmed up in shirts emblazoned with “LA Strong.” “On the court, the challenge doesn’t change,” Close said. “How bad do they want to choose the hard right? Because there isn’t any other shortcut. But I do want to say thank you to all the people — our administration, the people at Long Beach State that allowed us to have this experience here. I was really excited to play today because so many people busted it for us to have this opportunity to compete.” Related Articles College Sports | No. 1 UCLA women’s basketball moves home game to Long Beach State College Sports | Alexander: No. 1 UCLA women find the gym as a refuge College Sports | No. 1 UCLA women’s basketball uniting under harsh circumstances College Sports | Northwestern women’s basketball cancels trip to play UCLA and USC amid Los Angeles fires College Sports | No. 1 UCLA women cruise to easy win at Purdue LBSU was happy to host both teams for a night. “The current devastation in Los Angeles County from the wildfires is heartbreaking and tragic,” LBSU athletic director Bobby Smitheran said in a statement. “Working to help our industry colleagues who are going through extraordinary circumstances by providing facility support is one small way that we can show our shared values of resilience and camaraderie.”