{"id":691303,"date":"2026-03-30T00:49:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T00:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/691303\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T00:49:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T00:49:18","slug":"ucla-women-defeat-duke-to-advance-to-ncaa-tournament-final-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/691303\/","title":{"rendered":"UCLA women defeat Duke to advance to NCAA tournament Final Four"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SACRAMENTO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0When the confetti dropped after the final buzzer, the UCLA<\/a> women\u2019s basketball team was dancing.<\/p>\n

Lauren Betts<\/a> and Charlisse Leger-Walker<\/a> looked at each other as Tate McRae\u2019s \u201cJust Keep Watching\u201d played, then Gabriela Jaquez<\/a>, from across the court, locked eyes and raced to join them in time.<\/p>\n

It was time, once again, for the Bruins to celebrate by performing their dance routine<\/a>. This time, No. 1 UCLA also answered a key question during its Final Four-clinching 70-58<\/a> win over No. 3 Duke.<\/p>\n

Yes, the Bruins (35-1), barely challenged all season and always dancing and smiling, could actually deal with adversity after all.<\/p>\n

UCLA earned its second straight Final Four berth despite trailing at halftime for the second time all season and coming from behind to win while down in the second half for the first time.<\/p>\n

They will face the winner of Monday\u2019s game between No. 1 Texas and No. 2 Michigan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was definitely adversity,\u201d said Gianna Kneepkens<\/a>, who scored seven points. \u201cWe regrouped, and the way we were talking to each other gives me so much confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

UCLA trailed Duke 39-31 at the half after missing all four three-point attempts and committing 12 turnovers.<\/p>\n

\"UCLA <\/p>\n

UCLA center Lauren Betts drives to the basket over Duke forward Toby Fournier in the first half of the Bruins\u2019 win in the Elite Eight of the women\u2019s NCAA tournament Sunday.<\/p>\n

(Eric Thayer \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really didn\u2019t execute our game plan very well,\u201d UCLA coach Cori Close said of the first half. \u201cWe didn\u2019t control rebounds. We weren\u2019t the aggressors in creating catches. We didn\u2019t go strong to the rim and execute our stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

But they turned on the aggression early in the third quarter, taking deeper shots and forcing three jump-balls and four turnovers as the Bruins rallied from a deficit in the second half for the first time all season. UCLA outscored Duke 20-8 in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were really reactive in that first half and let the game come to us,\u201d said Leger-Walker, who finished with five points and six assists. \u201cWe let them dictate what was going on out there. It\u2019s not how we\u2019ve played in the season, when we\u2019ve been up and feeling good. So, you know, we could feel that coming into halftime, and we all kind of took a breath, reset, and a lot of that was on the defensive side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Betts was also activated late, with 15 of her 23 points and eight of her 10 rebounds coming in the second half while she matched a season high five blocks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was pretty mad,\u201d Betts said of her emotions at halftime. \u201cI just didn\u2019t like how that first half happened. I know that I could have been a lot more aggressive. I think going into a game like this, sometimes you just take yourself out of your head and you realize, oh, this is the Elite Eight and my season is on the line. So I\u2019ve got to wake up a little bit. Going into the locker room, I was just pretty certain that I wanted to win this game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Angela Dugalic<\/a> shot four of eight with four rebounds and two steals in the second half and was the catalyst for many big moments, including a buzzer-beating floater to end the third quarter and a lead-extending layup and free throw off an offensive rebound to create separation in the fourth. She finished with 15 points off the bench.<\/p>\n

Dugalic and the other veterans led a halftime conversation before Close came into the locker room.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Cori came in, she was super steady, and I think that gave us a sense of calm,\u201d Dugalic said. \u201cWe still were pretty neutral. We understood that the first half wasn\u2019t a good representation of how we want to play basketball. But Cori came in and what she said right now is, like, \u2018How do we stick back to our values and stay neutral, focus on next-play speed?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Duke <\/p>\n

Duke forward Delaney Thomas, left, tries to draw a foul against UCLA forward Angela Dugalic during the first half Sunday.<\/p>\n

(Eric Thayer \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Duke (27-9) scored 18 points off the Bruins\u2019 18 turnovers, tied for the most UCLA has committed all season. Twelve of them came in the first half. But UCLA turned it around in the second half with 18 points off 13 Duke turnovers.<\/p>\n

The Blue Devils entered the game limiting opponents to 26.8% from three-point range, ranking 15th nationally, and aggressively challenged the Bruins\u2019 offense. UCLA responded by becoming one dimensional, solely trying to get the ball to Betts in the post.<\/p>\n

But Gabriela Jaquez, who finished with nine points and five rebounds, hit a three-pointer early in the third quarter to get UCLA back within five, and Duke missed six consecutive shots while the Bruins narrowed the gap. Toby Fournier (10 points) also committed her third foul early in the quarter, forcing the Blue Devils\u2019 center off the floor.<\/p>\n

Both offenses stalled for a period in the third quarter, but consecutive Duke turnovers led to a Leger-Walker fast-break layup and a Kneepkens three-pointer for UCLA\u2019s first lead since the opening seconds of the game.<\/p>\n

Duke didn\u2019t score for 5:40 during the third quarter until Taina Mair (team-high 21 points) made a free throw with 32 seconds remaining. The eight Blue Devils\u2019 points were tied for the fewest they\u2019ve scored in a quarter this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can only learn from moments like this, which is a really positive thing,\u201d said Leger-Walker, with one piece of the NCAA tournament net tied to her Final Four hat. \u201cDefinitely not something we want to have as a pattern, though.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bruins held the ball with the clock running down, and Leger-Walker dribbled it to around the top of the three-point line and stopped. Her teammates surrounded her and the group huddled around each other as time expired.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

\u201cI just said, \u2018I love you guys,\u2019\u201d Betts said of the moment. \u201cThat was it. I said, \u2018I love you guys.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll dance on down to Phoenix next, looking not to avenge the Final Four defeat to UConn a year ago, but ready to prove they have grown to be a championship team.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we really know what it takes to build a rally too,\u201d Rice said.<\/p>\n

\"UCLA <\/p>\n

UCLA center Lauren Betts holds up a piece of the net after the Bruins\u2019 win over Duke in the Elite Eight of the NCAA women\u2019s basketball tournament Sunday.<\/p>\n

(Eric Thayer\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SACRAMENTO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0When the confetti dropped after the final buzzer, the UCLA women\u2019s basketball team was dancing. Lauren Betts and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":691304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[2493,32072,1582,276,1629,1627,2961,23245,224,5337,471,289612,449,24566,5950,51379,38272,78355,2501,173092],"class_list":["post-691303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-blue-devils","tag-bruins","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-duke","tag-final","tag-la","tag-lauren-betts","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-no","tag-november-loss","tag-point","tag-rebound","tag-season","tag-second-half","tag-third-quarter","tag-three-pointer","tag-ucla","tag-ucla-woman"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116315381384167174","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691303","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=691303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}