UCLA takes down Texas, advances to program’s first NCAA national championship game
PHOENIX — Cori Close said Thursday that her biggest regret of last year’s postseason was that she didn’t celebrate her UCLA team enough. The Bruins’ head coach will have a chance to remedy that Sunday in Phoenix. For the first time in program history, UCLA is on to the NCAA national championship game after the Bruins held on against fellow No.
1 seed Texas 51-44 on Friday night in a doozy at Mortgage Matchup Center. The Bruins will take on South Carolina, which upset UConn earlier in the night amid drama between head coaches Geno Auriemma and Dawn Staley . The Bruins ultimately had the cushion they needed to get the job done in one of the ugliest games of both their season and the tournament, thanks to getting hot in the fourth quarter on a night when offense was difficult to come by for both teams.
By the beginning of the fourth quarter, UCLA led just 31-28. But Close’s team rattled off a 7-0 run in the first two minutes of the final period, which ended up being just enough — especially after Texas made a 7-0 run of its own late to bring the game within 3 points with a little more than a minute to play. Star center Lauren Betts led the way with 16 points and had some help from guards Gabriela Jaquez and Gianna Kneepkens, who finished with 10 each.
Texas star Madison Booker, meanwhile, scored just six points and shot 3 of 23 from the field on an uncharacteristically cold night for the Longhorns’ most dominant player. Texas as a whole shot just 31 percent from the field, though the Bruins weren’t much better with their 41-percent clip. The win on Friday comes after Texas beat UCLA in late November by 11 points and Betts had just eight points in the Las Vegas matchup.
Perhaps more importantly? This victory is a year after the Bruins were blown out in the Final Four and left Tampa crushed after their best team in decades fell short of playing for the ultimate prize. Betts, the senior, was asked Thursday if there was any added pressure for this Bruins team, which is loaded with fellow seniors who know what’s on the line this weekend.