UCLA makes the Sweet 16

Los Angeles, CA (News4usOnline) – The NCAA Women’s Tournament journey thus far for the No. 1 UCLA Bruins has been sweet. Two games have resulted in two blowout wins for the Big Ten Conference Tournament champions. 

However, it took some grit and work for the Bruins to keep their title hopes alive. 

Tied at halftime with Richmond, UCLA scored 27 points while holding the Spiders to only seven in the third quarter. The point explosion enabled the Bruins to cruise to an 84-67 win at Pauley Pavilion. 

UCLA head coach Cori Close shared her thoughts about her team making it to the Sweet 16 in consecutive seasons. 

“Well, I think it’s one thing to get to certain points of elite excellence. And I think being Sweet 16 and higher, it’s really how you’re judged if you want to be an elite basketball program,” Close stated during a postgame press conference. 

“I think it’s sustained excellence, and I think we’re making steps of that. That’s just an expectation. We’re going to have habits that lead us to those places, and now we’ve got to push the envelope, though I’m only thinking 1-0, so I won’t talk about past that,” she added. 

UCLA ran out to a double-digit lead in the opening period against Southern University in its first-round NCAA Women’s Tournament game and never looked back. 

The Bruins had six players score in double-figures and eventually rolled to a 38-point win against the Jaguars. 

It was a different ballgame in the second round of the tournament against the Spiders. The Bruins were able to navigate their offensive and defensive schemes easily against the smaller Southern team. Richmond presented a different type of challenge. 

First, UCLA did not have the height advantage against Richmond that it had against Southern. Point two, the Spiders came out early and played like they were not in the least impressed that they were going up against the top-ranked team in the country. 

Whatever the Bruins did, the Spiders tried to one up the hosts. UCLA shot 50 percent from the field in the first quarter. Richmond shot the ball better, making 72 percent of its field goals in the period to take a 20-18 lead. 

Everything Southern was not able to do against the Bruins, Richmond had no issue doing. And after catching UCLA after the Bruins had scampered out to an eight-point lead in the second quarter, the sense of uneasiness seemed to cast a pall over the Pauley Pavilion crowd with the two teams going into halftime tied up at 36-36. 

With the first two quarters played tight, the next 10 minutes in the third quarter would likely prove to be the difference-maker in this hotly-contested game. The Bruins didn’t waste time in lighting the fire under themselves. 

Kiki Rice got the party started with a driving layup, followed by a timely 3-pointer by Londynn Jones. Angela Dugalic kept things going with a layup before Rice unleashed her own 3-pointer. That was followed up by consecutive three-point shots by Jones and Rice. Not to be undone, Lauren Betts dropped in a bucket.  

The Bruins built themselves a 60-43 lead with a little more than two minutes to go in the third quarter. UCLA closed the period leading by 22 points (65-43) after holding the Spiders to just seven points in the quarter. 

Betts, who finished the game with a game-high 30 points, led UCLA’s domination in the third quarter. While Betts dominated in the low-post, Rice ran UCLA’s offense to near perfection, culminating with a 23-point, seven assists, and one turnover effort. 

“I think a lot of us, we’ve been in this really similar position last year with Creighton. I think we were down at halftime last year. So kind of something we’re used to,” Rice said.

“I think coming out there and playing our game and making the adjustments we needed to offensively and defensively. But our belief and our motivation never wavered, which is something I’m really proud of this group. We’re really positive in the locker room and continue to build each other up, tell each other what we needed from each other, and it worked,” she went on to say.