The UCLA Bruins women’s basketball team came into the NCAA tournament as the top overall seed and looking to prove exactly why. The Bruins went to work in round one demolishing the visiting Southern University 84-46 using an all-around team effort to pick up the win last Friday night at UCLA.
Six players scored in double figures in the win and at least eight players scored nine points in the blowout win. UCLA’s All-American center Lauren Betts led the way by stuffing the stat sheet with 14 points, six rebounds, four assists and three blocks.
UCLA looked like a team truly focused and ready to go in round one, but the second round brought their first test of the tournament. The Bruins matched up against the University of Richmond and they tested the Bruins early.
Richmond was scrappy in the first half last Sunday night making it tough for UCLA to get comfortable offensively and both teams went into the half tied 36.
The third quarter was all UCLA for the second straight game as they outscored Richmond 29-7 to take a commanding 22-point lead into the final period where the Bruins finished off the Spiders 84-67.
UCLA women’s basketball coach Cori Close has been very good at making halftime adjustments the first two rounds as the Bruins has outscored its opponents 50-to-14 in the third quarter.
In this latest win it was the team’s star players, Betts and Kiki Rice, who carried the load for the Bruins. Betts became the first Bruin player ever to record 30-10 in an NCAA tournament game with her 30 points and 14 rebounds.
Betts scored 16 of her 30 points in the second half and finished with nine offensive rebounds, but she also found open teammates for open threes when she was double or even triple teamed. UCLA sank eight 3s in the second half off of assists or “hockey” assists from Betts
“She’s an absolute generational player … an elite player,” Close said after the game. “She’s incredibly competitive. She affects the game in so many ways on both offense and defense. I mean the list goes on and on.”
“Lauren just makes the game easy for everyone on this team,” point guard Rice said. “And I think her ability to shoulder so much weight and just do that on a consistent basis and show up for us every single day is something we really admire.”
Rice had her best game of the tournament by adding 23 points and seven assists. The junior has racked up 14 assists to just one turnover in the two NCAA tournament games and hit a career-high four three-pointers Sunday. “I call her the ‘Point God,'” Betts said. “She’s really, like, that girl.”
Both Betts and Rice will need to be at their best to help make a Final Four run for UCLA, but coach Close knows that it will take the entire team to be successful. “We have two big dogs up here, and they do so much for us,” Close said, sitting next to Betts and Rice during the press conference after the game. “But they know that it’s our team that matters, and the selflessness and work ethic that goes along with it.”
Sunday night was the last time the Bruins would play at Pauley Pavilion this season as they head to Spokane, Washington for a game on Friday against Ole Miss searching for redemption after their exit from the NCAA tournament a year ago in the Sweet 16.