{"id":677971,"date":"2026-03-24T09:02:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T09:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/677971\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T09:02:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T09:02:19","slug":"march-madness-lauren-betts-and-ucla-advance-to-the-sweet-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/677971\/","title":{"rendered":"March Madness: Lauren Betts and UCLA advance to the Sweet 16"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There were always going to be tears. In the final game at Pauley Pavilion for six UCLA seniors<\/a>, it was going to be a stunning defeat or a cathartic release before the next step in the NCAA tournament mission.<\/p>\n

It was the latter, as the decorated group of Bruins took their final stroll around the perimeter of the court and waved to the fans, tears glistening and smiles wide.<\/p>\n

The top-seeded Bruins led wire-to-wire, beating No. 8-seed Oklahoma State 87-68<\/a> in the second round of the NCAA tournament on Monday night to advance to the Sweet 16<\/a>. The Bruins will face No. 4 seed Minnesota on Friday in Sacramento. <\/p>\n

One of UCLA\u2019s seniors, Lauren Betts<\/a>, put together the best game of her career with 35 points while shooting 15 of 19 at the moment her team needed it most.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s really cool,\u201d Betts said. \u201cI mean, I can\u2019t deny, like, that is really cool. I feel like the points, they really don\u2019t mean anything to me. To me, like, I really just want to win games with this team. The fact that we won today is what matters most to me, and that we\u2019re moving on to the Sweet 16.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"UCLA <\/p>\n

UCLA center Lauren Betts fends off Oklahoma State players while shooting in the paint during the Bruins\u2019 win in the second round of the NCAA tournament Monday at Pauley Pavilion.<\/p>\n

(Ronaldo Bolanos\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

While UCLA (33-1) started much better than it did in the opening-round game, there were still elements to nitpick. The Bruins were outscored 21-18 in the third quarter, Oklahoma State (24-10) won the offensive rebounding battle and outside of Betts, the offense fell flat at points in the second half.<\/p>\n

But with arguably the best post player in the country, the Bruins could overcome all of that, get their final Pauley moment and advance. It was the last time Gabriela Jaquez,<\/a> Charlisse Leger-Walker<\/a>, Kiki Rice<\/a>, Gianna Kneepkens, Angela Dugalic and Betts will play on UCLA\u2019s home floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot wrap my head around that it was the last time,\u201d said Jaquez, who had 10 points and seven rebounds. \u201cThat effort from Lauren, too. I\u2019m super proud of her doing that tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

UCLA has arguably the deepest lineup in the country, with four of its five starters averaging double-digit scoring and six WNBA draft hopefuls, but when the Bruins needed a scoring boost, the squad turned to Betts.<\/p>\n

Betts scored 11 consecutive UCLA points in the last four minutes of the third quarter to put the Bruins back ahead by 19 while the rest of the offense went cold.<\/p>\n

After building a commanding lead in the first half, they survived the lull.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we just learned our lesson,\u201d Betts said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want another halftime with Coach Cori [Close] walking in there. We\u2019re trying to avoid that at all costs. I think it starts defensively. Like, we\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

UCLA did apply early pressure, jumping out to an 11-2 lead while the Cowgirls went the final 4:26 of the first quarter without scoring, going 0-for-8 from the field during that span. UCLA turned that into a 25-point lead and was up 46-26 at halftime.<\/p>\n

\"UCLA <\/p>\n

UCLA guard Kiki Rice, left, fights for the ball with Oklahoma State forward Achol Akot during the Bruins\u2019 win Monday.<\/p>\n

(Ronaldo Bolanos \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

It was an inverse of the slow start against California Baptist on Saturday, when the Bruins held a measly 10-point lead at the half over the No. 16 seed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was one of the takeaways after last game, everyone saw that,\u201d said Leger-Walke, who had six points and a team-high eight assists. \u201cWe know that we play our best when we come out and hit first and be aggressive and take the game to them and not let it come to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cowgirls shot 51.4% from the field in the second half to stay within striking distance. But Oklahoma State\u2019s leading scorer, Achol Akot (23 points), had four fouls by the start of the fourth quarter and had to spend much of the final period on the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach time you get further and further in [the NCAA tournament,] teams are gonna get better and better,\u201d said Rice, who scored 10 points. \u201cSo they came out in the second half fighting. We expected that. We knew that, but got some tough shots and just got to be able to weather the storm.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Kneepkens, who finished with 15 points, made a couple of key shots in the fourth quarter to help revive the Bruins\u2019 shooting, but it was still Betts\u2019 dominant showing that kept UCLA well ahead. Of UCLA\u2019s 87 points, 50 came in the paint.<\/p>\n

UCLA\u2019s next opponent, the Golden Gophers (24-8) advanced on a buzzer beater against No. 5 seed Ole Miss on Sunday. The Bruins beat Minnesota 76-58 on the road during conference play earlier this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re very confident,\u201d Close said of Minnesota. \u201cI fully expect it to be a great battle.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bruins have to win four games before they could claim the first NCAA title in program history, and the road there only gets tougher. First it\u2019s Minnesota, then a potential matchup with LSU or Duke for the regional title. Formidable No. 1 seeds Texas, South Carolina and UConn still loom on other portions of the bracket.<\/p>\n

There is little time to reflect with such a perilous path ahead, but on Monday, there was the first sense of finality.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy arm still hurts [from waving,]\u201d Jaquez said with a laugh as she recalled acknowledging fans. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t want to miss anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There were always going to be tears. In the final game at Pauley Pavilion for six UCLA seniors,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":677972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[32072,1582,276,2091,33353,2961,23245,224,5337,471,30133,285527,449,51379,40346,285526,554,80095,38272,285525],"class_list":["post-677971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-bruins","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-field","tag-fourth-quarter","tag-la","tag-lauren-betts","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-no","tag-oklahoma-state","tag-opening-round-game","tag-point","tag-second-half","tag-seed","tag-seed-minnesota","tag-shot","tag-sweet","tag-third-quarter","tag-ucla-advance"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116283345946817655","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}