SPOKANE, Wash. — UCLA center Lauren Betts had 17 points and seven rebounds despite spending the entire second quarter on the bench, and the Bruins — the No. 1 overall seed of this year’s NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament — earned the program’s first Final Four berth by beating LSU 72-65 on Sunday at Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena.
The 6-foot-7 Betts added six blocks as the Bruins (34-2) — who added this NCAA Region 1 championship to the Big Ten tourney title — kept the third-seeded Tigers (31-6) from securing what would have been their seventh trip to the Final Four and third in two years.
This year’s Final Four is in Tampa, Florida, with the national semifinals Friday night, and UCLA will play the winner of Monday’s Region 4 final, which is also in Spokane. It will be either the University of Southern California (31-3) — that region’s No. 1 seed and the Big Ten rival that handed the Bruins their only two losses — or the second-seeded University of Connecticut (34-3), which is chasing a record-extending 12th NCAA Division I women’s basketball championship.
Gabriela Jaquez had 18 points and eight rebounds for the Bruins, and Timea Gardiner finished with 15 points, helping to pick up the slack when Betts went to the bench after committing two fouls in the first quarter, which ended with UCLA trailing 13-9.
“Credit to my teammates for holding it down while I was out,” Betts said during the trophy ceremony.
UCLA won a national title in 1978 in the pre-NCAA era of women’s college basketball, but this was its first NCAA regional final victory in three tries. Cori Close, who was hired ahead of the 2011-12 season, coached the Bruins to the 2018 Elite Eight and has now broken through on her second try.
LSU senior forward Aneesah Morrow’s nose was bloodied in a collision with teammate Sa’Myah Smith with 1:22 left in the third quarter, but she checked back into her final game for the Tigers without any facial protection at the start of the fourth and finished with 15 points.
Flau’Jae Johnson scored 28 points to lead Southeastern Conference power LSU (31-6), which won the national title two years ago under coach Kim Mulkey but has been eliminated in the Elite Eight in back-to-back seasons.
UCLA led 31-25 at halftime and 46-41 entering the fourth quarter. Betts’ layup extended the Bruins’ lead to 56-45 with 6:54 to go, but Johnson’s layup got the Tigers within 56-52 with 3:24 left, spurring an “LSU! LSU!” chant from the crowd. The Tigers couldn’t get closer, though, and Jaquez made a 3-pointer with 1:30 left that all but sealed the Bruins’ win over the team that eliminated them from last year’s Sweet 16.
“We talk about if Lauren kicks it out, you’ve got to be a ready shooter,” Jaquez said. “I’ve just got to stay ready at all times. And I knew that was the right shot I needed to take, and I have confidence in myself when shooting. I put in the work.”
Betts — a matchup nightmare for any team with her towering stature and skill in the post — was coming off a 31-point, 10-rebound performance in the Sweet 16 and a 30-point, 14-rebound showing in the second round. She’s one of just three players to have multiple games with at least 30 points and 10 rebounds in the past 25 editions of March Madness.
“Betts did not beat us,” said Mulkey, who won three NCAA titles as Baylor’s head coach from 2000 to 2021 before leaving to take over the Tigers. “We guarded her as tough as we could. We did not take advantage of her being off the floor in the second quarter, and we allowed perimeter 3s and other people to step up.”
The Bruins went on a 6-0 run, capped by Gardiner’s 3-pointer, to take a 23-17 lead at the 6:15 mark of the second quarter.
Gardiner had nine points in the opening half to help the Bruins hold their own without Betts.
“I have full confidence in them,” Betts said of her teammates. “Obviously I’m more mad at myself that I had two fouls. But this is what we’re talking about when we say we have a deep team. I don’t have to be in the game at all times. I have a team full of players that are just amazing and talented in their own right and put in the work.”
Betts started the second half, extending the Bruins’ lead with a layup. Londynn Jones made it 36-25 with a 3-pointer, and UCLA pushed its advantage to 14 before an 8-1 LSU run closed the gap to 44-37. At one point, UCLA’s Close yelled at her team, “Execute!”
They finally did.
Mulkey pointed out that LSU outrebounded UCLA 43-38, but the Bruins went to the foul line 20 times as opposed to the Tigers’ 10. However, it was field-goal shooting that ultimately doomed LSU.
“Would have to go back and look at the shots we missed. Just wide-open shots,” Mulkey said, shaking her head.
After the game, Close was quick to point out UCLA’s previous national semifinal appearances in 1978 and 1979, when the sport was governed by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. Denise Curry and Debbie Haliday, who played on the title-winning team, were in attendance.
“We had some of the alumni here from that team,” Close said. “We had so many other alums, so I just wanted to give them their flowers.”