UCLA Bruins center Lauren Betts (51) reaches for the ball during an NCAA basketball game against the Long Beach State, Saturday December 20, 2025 in Los Angeles, Calif.Jack HaslettSun, December 21, 2025 at 1:25 AM UTC·3 min readLOS ANGELES - Freshman forward Sienna Betts' long-awaited debut finally arrived against Cal Poly on Thursday, but Saturday's matchup against Long Beach State is where the freshman truly had the chance to show exactly what she's capable of.
The freshman forward and younger sister of UCLA star senior Lauren Betts had a delayed start to her season after suffering a preseason injury, and she was limited against the Mustangs, playing 10 minutes, but an increased presence on the court against The Beach has shown that she is the electric role player that the Bruins have been expecting.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBetts played just shy of 15 minutes in the 106-44 win over The Beach and scored 14 points with five rebounds and two assists. It was a longer wait than she wanted to get to this point in her college career, but now that she has, she's soaking in every moment.
"I'm just really grateful to play the game of basketball and you don't realize how much you appreciate it until it's gone," Betts said. "It just makes me super excited to be here and be with my teammates and play with such amazing women."
A pile of accolades preceded Betts' commitment to UCLA. She was the Morgan Wootten National Girls High School Basketball Player of the Year her senior year, a McDonalds All-American and the MVP of the McDonalds All-American game. With those honors to her name, her game is undeniable. It is, of course, still early in her season and thus her opportunities to show the full extent of her abilities have been limited, but above all else Betts emphasizes her ability to complement the game of her teammates rather than hold up her own skills.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementShe even had to be encouraged by teammate senior forward Gabriela Jaquez in the postgame conference to keep listing her own skills after she topped at IQ.
Betts prioritizes being a teammate
"I'm a player that can mesh well with other people. I feel like I go off of other people's skills really well... I think just my IQ, my seals, post-ups, mid-range kind of stuff. I'm still only two games in so I got to show some of it, but I just hope to continue to go farther and farther out, but maintain my post skills as well."
Despite the delay to her season, Betts hasn't missed a beat when it comes to meshing with the team. She's made things hard for defenses while consistently finding good looks for her teammates with her passing both in and out of the paint. While she's been able to make waves of her own with her mid-range ability, it's the way she can set up her teammates that she values the most and she credits past experiences of learning and watching her teammates while she wasn't playing herself for that skill.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"I think when I was younger I wasn't a score-first player for my team, or score, or play at all. So, I feel like I was able to watch and understand and figure out what my teammates like and where they want to be... and that's honestly [what] I just pride myself for and it makes me super excited to go out there, because that's what I want to do. I want people to be able to say they liked playing with me more than anything."
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