UCLA’s women hoopsters advance to Sweet 16

Los Angeles, CA (New4usonline) – It was a different game, but the same results. The UCLA Bruins didn’t waste time in making a statement to the Oklahoma State Cowgirls in their second round NCAA Women’s Tournament game played at Pauley Pavilion. 

“I’ll just start by giving credit to UCLA and what they have here is really special,” Oklahoma State head coach Jacie Hoyt said. 

“The environment that we got to play in tonight was incredible, and they have a team that I believe is capable of winning it all. They have got it all. They have got all the pieces. They are by far the best team that we have played this season,” Hoyt went on to say. 

In their first round debut of the tournament, UCLA allowed Cal Baptist to get some confidence that they could possibly pull off an upset before settling down the Lancers with a 52-9 blitz in the second half to secure victory. 

This time around, the Bruins and center Lauren Betts got it going early and didn’t look back. Betts dominated often and early, scoring a game-high 35 points to lead UCLA to a 87-68 win. 

“Yeah, I mean, I think I was just working really hard today on getting seals, and my teammates did a really good job of finding me today,” Betts said after the game. “Some of those passes were absolutely insane. The trust that they have to throw that up there and just know that I’m going to catch it, I think that’s just all the chemistry that we’ve been working on all season.” 

With this contest being the last home game for the Bruins, it was an emotional  wave of good-bye for the seniors on the UCLA squad. 

“You know, it’s a weird feeling right now because we just — we are so excited about having another 1-0 part of our season,” UCLA head basketball coach Cori Close remarked. “So we’re not really — from a basketball perspective, these aren’t where the tears come from. It’s the way these seniors have affected our UCLA community, class, commitment, loyalty, selflessness.”

Back to the game. UCLA outscored Oklahoma State 21-6 in the first period and kept that distance from the Cowgirls throughout the game. 

The UCLA defense forced Oklahoma State into making just 13 percent (12.5 percent) of their field goal attempts in the opening period, connecting on just 2 of its 16 shots. 

“We know that they’re really big, but we also have speed as an advantage,” Oklahoma State player Jadyn Wooten said. “So I feel like we didn’t get off to the start that we wanted to, but coming into the second half, it was just something that we thought we could take advantage of. So just coming in, doing what we know how to do, and I think that’s what got us the run.”

The Bruins, on the other hand, made half of their shots in the first quarter. From there, UCLA kept it going for the other three quarters. Where UCLA won the game was in the paint with Betts leading the charge. 

The Bruins scored 50 of their 87 points down low, a testament to strong rebounding and board crashing. UCLA also took advantage of the 11 turnovers that Oklahoma State committed. 

The Bruins scored 16 points off those turnovers, which kept the Cowgirls at bay. But the tone of the game was already established in that first quarter where the Bruins got off to their fast start. 

“I think we just learned our lesson,” Betts said. “We don’t want another halftime with Coach Cori walking in there (laughing). We’re trying to avoid that at all costs. Yeah, no, I think — I mean, I think it starts defensively. Like, we’re going to score. Obviously, we know that. But I think just being the aggressors and taking things away is a really big point that we wanted to make this game, and I thought we did that from the very beginning.” 

Cover Art/Lead Image: Los Angeles, CA – UCLA guard Kiki Rice (1) and the Bruins advance to the Sweet 16 after defeating Oklahoma State 87-68 in the second round of the NCAA Women’s Tournament at Pauley Pavilion on March 23, 2026. Photo credit: Dylan Berkman / News4usonline