Phoenix – UCLA won both a spot in their first NCAA Championship game, and beat out Texas, 51-44 Friday night, in a defensive slugfest that was one of the lowest-scoring games in Final Four history.
Lauren Betts lead the 36-1 Bruins with 16 points and 11 rebounds, as they avenged their lone loss of the season to the Longhorns last November. The win positions them for a title game matchup against South Carolina on Sunday. Kiki Rice scored 11 points for UCLA, while Gianna Kneepkens and Gabriela Jaquez each added 10 points, in a night where their team turned the ball over an uncharacteristic 23 times.
Coach Cori Close said the Bruins “didn’t play to their best offensively,” and that she had warned them that they might have such a game after their Big 10 Tournament championship win.
“I told our team that you cannot fall in love with pretty offense and think that it’s going to be like this every game,” she said. “I told them there’s going to be a game in the NCAA tournament that you’re going to have to just grind it out and do it with your defense.”
“I want to grow the game so bad, I felt guilty walking off the floor because it was not pretty in any way, shape or form. But the reality is, too, that it’s all about toughness at this point, and finding a way to make a winning play.”
For UCLA, that winning play came after the Longhorns came back from 13 down with 4:36 to play, by using suffocating defense. With just a 47-44 advantage with 55.8 seconds remaining, Betts blocked a Madison Booker layup and Kiki Rice iced two free throws to seal the win.
Texas shot an uncharacteristically low 31 percent from the field, as Kyla Oldacre came off the bench for 11 points and 7 rebounds, and the normally prolific Rori Harmon and Booker scored 8 and 6 points, respectively.
Longhorn coach Vic Schaefer said his team had opportunities to turn things around.
“I thought we had….plenty of good looks. You look on the stat sheet, we had 21 more shots, 10 more offensive boards, we forced 23 turnovers. We only had 12. We held them to six points in the second quarter,” he said. “We got off to a rough start……we didn’t play well offensively the first quarter, but we played well enough to win.”
“It’s part of the cruelty that is the game sometimes. It’s the rub of the game.”
In the win, the Bruins also atoned for last year’s Final Four semifinal loss to UConn, where they lost by 34 points. Betts said the entire team used that game as a motivator going into this season, where they were ranked No. 2 for all but 2 weeks.
“Last year we took that loss really hard. I think it made us think a lot about what we could have done better, not just in practice but as a team, leadership, being able to have tough conversations,” Betts said. “I’m just really proud of the growth and the way that we’ve held such a high standard consistently this year. The way we’ve competed every single day in practice has gotten us to where we want to be today.”
All season long, Close and her team have had the mantra to take one game at a time, and not look ahead. They will bring that approach into the last game of the year.
“All you can ask for is an opportunity to play your best basketball for a national championship. We’re really excited about that opportunity,” Close said.
UCLA won an AIAW national title in 1978, which is the last time they played for a championship. Their opponent, South Carolina, has won three titles since 2017.
The National Championship is at 12:30 p.m. PT on ESPN.
