Trump seeks control of the GOP primary in New Hampshire against Nikki Haley, his last major rival

• January 23, 2024

By Holly Ramer and Will Weissert, Associated Press

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Donald Trump is aiming for a commanding victory Tuesday in New Hampshire, securing a sweep of the first two Republican primary races that would make a November rematch with President Joe Biden look more likely than ever.

The biggest question is whether Trump’s last major rival, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, will be able to eat into his margin — or pull off an upset outright. Haley has dedicated significant time and financial resources to New Hampshire, hoping to appeal to its famously independent-minded electorate.

In the first results released early Tuesday, all six registered voters of tiny Dixville Notch cast their ballots for Haley over Trump. The resort town is the only one in New Hampshire this year that opted to vote at midnight.

Trump won New Hampshire’s Republican primary big during his first run for president in 2016, but some of his allies lost key races during the midterms two years ago. Haley also has to contend with an opponent who has a deep bond with the GOP base and has concentrated on winning the state decisively enough that it would effectively end the competitive phase of the Republican primary.

If successful, Trump would be the first Republican presidential candidate to win open races in Iowa and New Hampshire since both states began leading the election calendar in 1976 — a clear sign of his continued grip on the party’s most-loyal voters.

Trump’s allies are already pressuring Haley to leave the race and those calls will intensify if he wins New Hampshire easily. Were she to drop out, that would effectively decide the GOP primary on its second stop, well before the vast majority of Republican voters across the country have been able to vote.

Haley has been campaigning with New Hampshire’s popular Republican governor, Chris Sununu, a Trump critic. She insists she’s in the race for the long run, telling supporters at a VFW hall in Franklin on Monday that “America does not do coronations.”

“This is about, do you have more of the same, or do you want someone who’s going to take us forward with new solutions,” Haley told reporters, also saying that, “We can either do the whole thing that we’ve always done and live in that chaos world that we’ve had, or we can go forward with no drama, no vendettas and some results for the American people.”

“This is a two-person race,” she added.

Republican presidential candidate, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks during a campaign event on January 22, 2024, in Salem, New Hampshire. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Haley and Trump were both hoping to capitalize on high-profile recent departures from the race. Haley could get a lift from some supporters of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who campaigned around decrying Trump but ended his bid shortly before Iowa’s caucus last week. Trump, meanwhile, may be able to consolidate support from conservative voters who were supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who dropped his White House bid on Sunday.

Trump, who appeared at a pre-primary rally in Laconia with one of his former primary rivals, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, was already looking ahead to being the race’s last Republican candidate. Asked during a Monday interview with Newsmax about Haley possibly abandoning her campaign after New Hampshire, the former president said he’d never call on her to do that but added, “Maybe she’ll be dropping out Tuesday.”

Scot Stebbins Sr., who attended Trump’s rally in a Make America Great Again baseball cap, called him “the greatest president we’ve had since Abraham Lincoln” adding that Trump “has done nothing but good for our nation.”

Stebbins said he thought the four criminal cases and 91 felony counts Trump is facing constituted “a witch hunt” and said Trump would “get rid of all the corrupt politicians who have been in there too long that are getting paid off.”

“He can’t be bought,” Stebbins said. “He’s a true American. He always has been.”

Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump signs autographs and shakes hands with supporters at the conclusion of a campaign rally in the basement ballroom of The Margate Resort on January 22, 2024 in Laconia, New Hampshire. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Democrats were also holding a primary Tuesday, but it was unlike any in recent memory.

Biden championed new Democratic National Committee rules that have the party’s 2024 primary process beginning on Feb. 3 in South Carolina, rather than in Iowa or New Hampshire. He argued that Black voters, the party’s most reliable constituency and a critical part of his win in South Carolina that revived his 2020 primary campaign after three opening loses, should have a larger and earlier role in determining its nominee.

New Hampshire’s Democrats, citing state laws dictating that their state hold the nation’s first primary after Iowa’s caucus, defied the revamped order and pushed ahead with their primary as scheduled.

Biden didn’t campaign here and his name won’t be on the ballot, meaning the state’s Democrats can vote for the president’s two little-known major primary challengers, Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips and self-help author Marianne Williamson. Still, many of New Hampshire’s top Democrats backed a write-in campaign that they expect Biden to handily win.

Some voters who might otherwise back Democrats could also vote in the more-competitive Republican primary if they are undeclared.

Karen Padgett is an undeclared voter who saw Haley on Monday. She said she’d voted for Trump in the last two elections but didn’t plan to do so again but also is “really annoyed with Joe Biden that he kind of wrote New Hampshire off.”

Democratic challenger U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips speaks to supporters during a campaign rally on January 22, 2024 in Manchester, New Hampshire. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

“Her statement is everybody’s so old there, they’re so entrenched,” Padgett said of Haley’s promises to shake up Washington in ways that Trump pledged to, but never did. “Let’s get some new people in there.”

Instead of focusing on New Hampshire, Biden was joining Vice President Kamala in northern Virginia for a rally in defense of abortion rights, which Democrats see as a winning issue for them across the country in November.

There’s nonetheless a growing sense of inevitability around November being a reprisal of Biden versus Trump. Both men have been criticized by their opponents over age — Biden is 81, Trump 77 — and each has painted the other as woefully unfit for another White House term.

Public opinion polls suggest most Americans oppose a rematch. An AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll in December found that 56% of U.S. adults would be very or somewhat dissatisfied with Biden as the Democratic nominee — and 58% felt the same about Trump as the GOP pick.

Democratic presidential hopeful Marianne Williamson speaks during a campaign event at Teatotaller’s Cafe in Concord, New Hampshire, on January 17, 2024. ( Joseph Prezioso / AFP via Getty Images)

Some New Hampshire voters expressed similar frustration.

Jeff Caira, 66, a Republican from Sanbornton, said he was undecided in the primary but that he wanted a candidate who will tackle “the issues, rather than address the baggage that the other two candidates seem to have.”

He said he was “disappointed” that as large as the U.S. is, ”the two front-runners are the best we have to offer.”

Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Joseph Frederick in Franklin, New Hampshire, Mike Pesoli in Laconia, New Hampshire, and Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County fails to land on Yelp’s Top 100 Places to Eat list for 2024

• January 23, 2024

Yelp HAS released its 11th annual Top 100 Places to Eat in the United States, which features 18 California restaurants this year, with several Golden State locations making appearances.

That is, except for Orange County.

Out of the 100 best places to eat, according to Yelp reviews, 18 can be found in the Golden State. The company’s 2023’s rankings had featured nine Orange County restaurants, including Anaheim’s Sunbliss Cafe, Sababa Falafel Shop in Garden Grove and Hanuman Thai Eatery in Costa Mesa. This year O.C. has zilch.

Riverside and Ventura counties, which had two and one appearances in 2023, respectively, didn’t make the cut this year, either.

Los Angeles County has four restaurants on this year’s list (down from six). Downtown L.A.’s Broken Mouth, Yelp’s No. 1 restaurant in the nation last year, fell to No. 6. (Latin American vegetarian restaurant Tumerico in Tucson, Arizona, came in at the top spot for 2024.)

Asian cuisines were the most represented in 2024, with Asian, Asian-fusion, and Southeast Asian restaurants making up 25% of the list. More than 85% of the eateries are priced under $30 per person.

Yelp’s Top 100 Places to Eat in the United States, released Tuesday, Jan 23, is determined by the company’s data team who use community submissions to determine restaurants by ratings, number of reviews and volume of submissions, according to Yelp. Food trucks, delis and cafés are also taken into consideration.

Here are the other Southern California eateries that made the list and their rankings:

Los Angeles County

4. GS Cafe and Ethiopian Cuisine (Covina)

6. Broken Mouth/Lee’s Homestyle (Los Angeles)

10. Uncle Af’s (Agoura Hills)

81. Zamorales Grill (Woodland Hills)

San Diego County

3. Sunnyside Kitchen (Escondido)

16. Crafted Greens (El Cajon)

40. Rosemarie’s Burgers (San Diego)

53. Peace Pies (San Diego)

The state with the second-most appearances was Florida with 13 restaurants, Arizona and Texas both have eight spots each and Nevada finished the top five most represented states with six eateries.

​ Orange County Register 

Man pleads guilty to unprovoked fatal beating of 70-year-old Anaheim resident

• January 23, 2024

SANTA ANA — A 33-year-old man pleaded guilty Monday to fatally beating a 70-year-old man in Anaheim on Memorial Day 2021, trying to attack another man in the neighborhood and assaulting two other victims a couple weeks before that.

David Steven Abbott had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and was midway through his trial when his defense attorney and prosecutors began discussing a plea deal. Jurors were dismissed Monday and now the question of whether Abbott was legally sane at the time he killed Caltrans worker Rahmatolah “Davey” Yaghoubi will be left up to Orange County Superior Court Judge Sheila Hanson, who will hand down her ruling on Tuesday.

Abbott was free on bail when he beat Yaghoubi to death for attacks on May 15, 2021. On Monday, he pleaded guilty to attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon while admitting sentencing enhancements for attempted premeditated murder and the personal use of a deadly weapon in those attacks on two victims.

Hanson sentenced Abbott to eight years to life in prison for those crimes. But if she finds he was legally insane at the time of the fatal beating, then the prison sentence would be suspended until his sanity was restored in a mental health facility, where he would be sent to indefinitely.

In Yaghoubi’s death, Abbott pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and felony assault for an unrelated attack nearby.

Abbott’s attorney, Lee Stonum of the Alternate Defender’s Office, said his client has been diagnosed as bipolar and schizophrenic.

Yaghoubi’s brother, John Yaghoubi, protested to Hanson about what he felt was an imbalance in the process.

“It is shocking to me that the person who murdered my brother has more rights than my brother,” Yaghoubi said. “To me, it is so disappointing a person can get away with an insanity plea.”

A shirtless Abbott with a large dog in tow approached Luis Javier Vera about noon that Memorial Day at the victim’s home. Vera was in the driveway of the home while his daughter, who had just given birth, was tending to the newborn and watching television.

Vera said his daughter, Kailyn, “brought it to my attention someone” was approaching the home.

“He was very friendly, had a smile on his face and introduced himself,” Vera said. “He told me his name and put his hand out so I shook it.”

Kailyn Vera said her brother was selling his car in the driveway so she thought Abbott was a potential customer.

Abbott leaned in closely to Vera “and gave me a dirty gaze and looked me in the eye” before hauling off and punching Vera in the head, Vera said.

Vera said he “stumbled” but then managed to compose himself and ran behind the car for cover. The two kept maneuvering back and forth around the car as Vera called to his daughter to dial police, he said.

“He kept yelling, `You don’t belong here, go back where you came from,’” Vera said.

Stonum said in his opening statement of the trial that his client appeared to think he could look into the eyes of people and determine if they were possessed by a demon.

Kailyn Vera said she dashed into the house to get her brother, who emerged with his baseball bat while she used his phone to call police.

“My son came out with a baseball to stop him,” Vera said.

Abbott began backing away making “devil horns” signs with his hands, Vera said.

Kailyn Vera testified that the defendant “threatened to come back to see me. He pointed right at me specifically.”

When they said the police were on the way, Abbott said, “I’m the devil. I know the police and they’re on my side,” Kailyn Vera testified.

Abbott moved on from the 1300 block of Devonshire Road to Falmouth and Catalpa avenues and began attacking Yaghoubi about 12:15 p.m.

Eric Hoekstra testified he was putting up a flag in his front yard when he hard “some shouting, a commotion.”

Initially he thought it might be a “domestic scuffle and I was not inclined to get involved,” Hoekstra said.

But as he got closer to the scrum he saw Abbott “hit him hard and snapped the victim’s head back,” Hoekstra testified. “He crumpled like a bag of rocks.”

As Abbott continued kicking the victim Hoekstra shouted to him to “knock it off” while dialing 911, Hoekstra testified. A dispatcher advised Hoekstra that officers were on the way and to not get involved.

As Abbott continued kicking the victim “in the head and torso” he was “screaming, sounding like something Biblical, but I read the Bible and it’s nothing I ever read.”

Abbott was shouting, “This is what he needs, he needs to repent,” Hoekstra testified.

As Hoekstra kept imploring Abbott to stop, “He looked at me, I got his attention,” he testified. “He gave me an evil look, and that’s when I backed down because he’s obviously a dangerous person.”

Deputy District Attorney Seton Hunt played a video of the beating death with Abbott heard shouting, “Let the good Lord in your heart!”

Abbott also said, “Get out! In the name of the good spirit! Everything is belief! Hallelujah, good Lord! Hallelujah! Watch. Hallelujah! God bless his good name! The better. Everything!”

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​ Orange County Register 

76ers’ Joel Embiid scores 70 to break Wilt Chamberlain’s franchise record

• January 23, 2024

By AARON BRACY The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — Joel Embiid scored a franchise-record 70 points, the most in the NBA this season, to lead the Philadelphia 76ers to a 133-123 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Monday night.

Embiid also set a career high with 18 rebounds. He was 24 for 41 from the field, including 1 for 2 from 3-point range, and made 21 of 23 free throws. He broke Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain’s 76ers record of 68 points, set on Dec. 16, 1967, with a layup with 1:41 to play.

Chamberlain was playing for the Philadelphia Warriors when he set the NBA record with 100 points.

A six-time All-Star and the league’s reigning MVP, Embiid has scored at least 30 points in 21 consecutive games. The 76ers have won six in a row.

Rookie Victor Wembanyama had 33 points and seven rebounds in 29 minutes in the first matchup between the 7-footers. The rebuilding Spurs fell to 5-19 on the road.

Embiid said playing against Wembanyama added motivation to his mission every night.

“I wouldn’t sit here and lie to you, but that’s my mindset every single game,” Embiid said afterward on the local TV broadcast. “My mindset is to attack, dominate offensively and defensively, so tonight was no different.”

Embiid had tied his career high of 59 points through three quarters and re-entered the contest with 6:38 left and Philadelphia ahead 118-104. With the record in sight, the 76ers were feeding him the ball at every opportunity.

“Obviously, he can score in so many ways, just his sheer size gets him a lot of stuff around the basket, gets him a lot of free throws,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse said. “The shooting touch is the skill part. The way he moves, the skill he has, the size he is, and he gets motivated like that, anything can happen I guess.”

Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid, center, goes up for a shot between the San Antonio Spurs’ Jeremy Sochan, left, and Keldon Johnson during the second half on Monday night in Philadelphia. Embiid scored a franchise-record 70 points in the 76ers’ 133-123 win. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Giannis Antetokounmpo had the previous high game in the NBA this season with 64 points.

All eyes were on Embiid and Wembanyama from even before the first tip when fans lined the court to watch the Spurs’ French phenom in warmups. The home fans already know what Embiid can do, and Philadelphia’s star might have wanted to make sure they didn’t forget.

“It will be interesting for all of us to see for the first time,” Nurse said before the game.

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Electrifying might have been a better adjective.

“It would have been more fun in a win, of course, but it’s inspiring, especially offensively,” Wembanyama said.

Embiid hit a 13-footer over Wembanyama 1:11 into the contest. The Spurs rookie responded impressively, with a pair of 3-pointers within 27 seconds of each other, and then finished an alley-oop dunk before heading to the bench with 6:27 left in the first due to two fouls.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich joked before the game that the Spurs’ plan against Embiid was to “hammer his (butt). I told Wemby to back him down over the rim and just throw him through the rim.”

But it was clear from the start that nothing was going to work. Embiid had 24 points on 8-for-12 shooting in the first quarter.

AN HISTORIC 70-POINT NIGHT FOR JOEL EMBIID

76ers franchise record
9th player in NBA history to score 70+
A new career high

70 PTS, 18 REB, 24/41 FGM, 21/23 FTM pic.twitter.com/gDKY2E9bVA

— NBA (@NBA) January 23, 2024

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County boys soccer Top 10 rankings, Jan. 22

• January 23, 2024

ORANGE COUNTY BOYS SOCCER TOP 10

(Records through Sunday, Jan. 21)

1. Mater Dei (14-0)

2. San Clemente (10-0-2)

3. Orange Lutheran (7-4-3)

4. JSerra (6-1-5)

5. Godinez (14-3-3)

6. Servite (11-4-2)

7. Valencia (11-4-3)

8. Sunny Hills (13-3-1)

9. Newport Harbor (13-2-1)

10. Edison (11-1-4)

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​ Orange County Register 

California’s U.S. Senate candidates spar on health care, war and Trump

• January 23, 2024

Health care, war in the Middle East and former President Donald Trump divided the four top candidates for California’s U.S. Senate race Monday night as they sparred in their first debate of the cycle.

Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff, Barbara Lee and Katie Porter, as well as Republican businessman and former Dodgers star Steve Garvey, took a debate stage at USC where they traded jabs — and baseball references — for an hour and a half.

It was health care, specifically a question on Medicare for All, that caused the most fireworks among the four.

Porter, who has represented an Orange County district since 2019, expressed her support for what’s been dubbed a Medicare for All system.

“I think we need to pass a health care system that delivers the best quality care with the most choice at the lowest price point,” Porter said, arguing that’s Medicare for All.

Schiff expressed support for an opt-in Medicare for All system, calling it an “efficient … direction we need to go in.”

Health care, Lee said, “should be a human right” and touted her record of supporting single-payer health care initiatives.

Garvey, for his part, said Medicare for All would “be a strain on our economy.” When asked about the Affordable Care Act, Garvey said he believes it works for some.

It was during this time that Porter launched what became an oft-repeated from the debate stage criticism at her Democratic House colleagues: “Career politicians,” she said, hadn’t moved the needle on a better health care system.

“Others can talk about taking on corporations or taking on industries. Some of us have actually done things, gotten things accomplished,” Schiff shot back.

Trump, the Republican presidential frontrunner, was also the catalyst of some of the more tense moments of the debate Monday.

While Garvey has sought to distance himself from Trump throughout the campaign thus far, that simply wasn’t an option as his three Democratic opponents aligned him with the former president’s agenda — and called him out for not unequivocally saying whether he’d back Trump in 2024.

Garvey said he did support Trump twice before but as for his vote this year, his answer was: “At the end of the day, it’s a personal choice. It’s my personal choice, and I will make it in the sovereignty of wherever that is.”

“Once a Dodger always a dodger,” said Porter, referencing his 14 seasons with the MLB team.

After the debate, Porter and Schiff resumed their criticism of Garvey for refusing to say if he would vote for Trump a third time. Garvey, however, climbed into a car and ignored reporters’ shouted questions as he left the venue.

Ahead of Monday’s debate, it was Schiff, a Burbank Democrat who maintains a substantial lead over the rest of the field according to a recent Emerson College poll, who found his support rising. Garvey, coming in second, has also seen a boost in support, whereas Porter and Lee have remained stagnant.

And while they were the most progressive candidates on the stage, Lee and Porter used the debate to highlight their differences.

During opening remarks, Porter reiterated her opposition to earmarks, where individual members of Congress can bypass the federal government’s regular spending process and request money for a local project. Earmarks, she said, “invite corruption.”

But Lee has an opposite position: “I believe in earmarks. I believe in not being derelict in my duty,” she said, saying she supports funneling federal money for nonprofits and organizations that address homelessness, LGBTQ+ people and climate initiatives.

“It would be a derelict of duty to my constituents to not fight for every single dollar that I could find,” said Lee, who represents an Oakland district. “No, it won’t solve all the problems, but it sure has filled in the gaps.”

“We’re a donor state. We send far more back in tax dollars to Washington than we get back,” said Schiff. “Any senator from California who says, ‘no, we’re not going to fight for those resources,’ that’s going to be wonderful news” for the other states.

Another difference among the Democrats: the Israel-Hamas war.

Lee has called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza — where Israel has launched a bruising offensive since the Oct. 7 terrorist attack and kidnapping of civilian hostages by Hamas.

But Schiff says Israel should be able to defend itself. He wants the U.S. to work toward a two-state solution, he said, but doesn’t want Hamas, which has been dubbed a terrorist organization, to control Gaza.

“No country after being attacked by terrorists could refuse to defend itself,” Schiff said.

“If you don’t have a permanent ceasefire now, more people are going to get killed,” said Lee.

A demonstration calling for an immediate ceasefire met the crowd as it exited the debate.

4 Senate candidates will debate tonight. Here’s what they need to accomplish

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The televised event was the first time voters were able to really compare, side-by-side, not just these top candidates, but also the three Democratic House members in the race for the seat long held by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who died Sept. 29.

But for those who missed Monday’s live event, another debate is already in the works. KTLA will host the same four candidates on Monday, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m. for another contest.

​ Orange County Register 

Arizona man sentenced to 26 years for 2022 armed robbery spree across Southern California

• January 23, 2024

An Arizona man who pleaded guilty last spring to a four-county armed robbery spree in Southern California in 2022 was sentenced on Monday, Jan. 22, to 26 years in federal prison.

Samuel Sven Smith, 28, pleaded guilty in May to charges including two counts of interference with commerce by robbery and two counts of brandishing and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Smith, a resident of Phoenix, was also ordered to pay $8,873 in restitution.

From July 31, 2022, until his arrest on Aug. 20, 2022, Smith robbed a Big Lots store in Riverside and PetSmart stores in Signal Hill, Orange, San Bernardino, Fontana, Pico Rivera, Redlands, Rancho Cucamonga and Phoenix. In each robbery, a firearm was brandished at employees.

During his last robbery at a Rancho Cucamonga PetSmart store on Aug. 20, 2022, Smith stole $400 before attempting to flee. When he was met outside by law enforcement, Smith opened fire at the officers.

He then led law enforcement on a high-speed vehicle chase.

Smith fired his gun at officers several times during the pursuit, which extended into Pomona, before a patrol vehicle rammed into Smith’s vehicle and stopped it.

Smith’s chin was injured from a gunshot wound from his firearm after he mistakenly fired a shot when police rammed into his vehicle, according to a sworn affidavit filed with the criminal complaint in this case.

On top of his sentencing, Smith was also ordered to pay $8,873 in restitution.

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​ Orange County Register 

UCLA women return to No. 2, then lose to No. 16 Utah in OT

• January 23, 2024

By MATTHEW COLES The Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY — The UCLA women’s basketball team returned to the No. 2 spot in the latest AP Top 25 poll to start the day, but the Bruins didn’t have much to celebrate by the end of the night despite a valiant fourth-quarter comeback.

Kennady McQueen had a season-high 21 points, Dasia Young and Matyson Wilke each made four 3-pointers and No. 16 Utah upended UCLA, 94-81, in overtime on Monday night.

“Normally, it’s Alissa (Pili) coming up in those huge moments but seeing her struggle, she knows that we’re more than capable. She was hyping us all up the entire time. Everyone else just stepped up individually tonight,” McQueen said.

Young and Wilke each had season highs of 16 points to overcome an off-game by their star Pili, who had 16 points on 4-of-15 shooting.

“(Pili) doesn’t care how many points she scores. She wasn’t mad … and wasn’t telling us, ‘Guys, I need the ball.’ She kept passing it when we were open and it just shows we love each other and we’re gonna do anything we can to win,” Wilke said.

Utah (14-5 overall, 4-3 Pac-12) had never defeated a team ranked this high and had never beaten the Bruins (15-2, 4-2) three times in a row.

Gabriela Jaquez scored 21 points, Kiki Rice added 16 and Charisma Osborne had 14 for the Bruins, who were outscored 22-9 in overtime after a remarkable fourth-quarter comeback.

“We showed a lot of guts to put us in a position to where I thought we should have won the game. We got to close that out,” UCLA coach Cori Close said.

In overtime, Pili finally made her mark with a rebound putback and two free throws on consecutive possessions to put Utah up 83-76 with 2:01 remaining. UCLA, which was outrebounded for the first time all season (38-35), never got close after that.

The Bruins had clamped down in the fourth quarter, forcing five turnovers and 1-for-9 shooting before Wilke hit her fourth 3-pointer of the game to make it 70-64.

“We didn’t win many hustle plays until the fourth quarter,” Close said. “We got stops, attacking in transition, getting second-shot opportunities.”

Jaquez, Rice and Brown made three shots in a row to give UCLA its first lead, 71-70, since the first half with 53.9 seconds left. The Bruins blocked Pili twice in the final minute of regulation.

Utah’s Ines Vieira, who had 12 points, made a driving layup to send the game to overtime after Camryn Brown made a free throw with four seconds remaining in regulation.

“Ines’s layup – that wasn’t even the play – but she just made a read and it was perfect,” McQueen said.

BIG PICTURE

UCLA: With the height advantage they enjoy nearly every game, the Bruins gave Pili problems but couldn’t cash in with many easy baskets on the offensive end. The UCLA defense couldn’t keep up as Utah generated wide-open 3-point looks with its drive-and-kick offense.

Utah: The Utes take the vast majority of their shots around the basket or behind the 3-point line, so when the 3-pointers (13 for 28) are falling Utah’s offense really hums. Perhaps the keys were Utah’s all-out hustle with swarming defense and bodies on the floor nearly every play.

UP NEXT

UCLA hosts Washington on Friday at 7 p.m.

​ Orange County Register