LOS ANGELES (AP) — UCLA led all the way, repelling Oklahoma State's lone run in the third quarter, and the top-seeded Bruins won 87-68 on Monday night to reach the Sweet 16 of the women's NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive year.
Lauren Betts had a career-high 35 points on 15-of-19 shooting and nine rebounds for the Bruins (33-1), who led by 25 in the first half at Pauley Pavilion, where Dwyane Wade and wife Gabrielle Union watched with their
7-year-old daughter.
“I was just working really hard on getting seals," Betts said. “My teammates did a really great job finding me. Some of those passes were absolutely insane.”
Betts received a standing ovation when she exited with a minute to go in the 6-foot-7 center's final home game. She arrived in Westwood after playing her freshman season at Stanford.
“I’m just really thankful,” Betts said. “This community, the minute I transferred over here, has really welcomed me with open arms.”
Seeking a return trip to the Final Four, the Bruins next play fourth-seeded Minnesota (24-10) in a matchup of Big Ten opponents Friday in Sacramento.
UCLA's 53-point victory over Cal Baptist in the opening round was the biggest postseason win in program history. The Bruins repeatedly blew out opponents in the regular season, too.
“They have a team that I believe is capable of winning it all,” Cowgirls coach Jacie Hoyt said.
Achol Akot scored 23 points for the ninth-seeded Cowgirls before fouling out with 24 seconds remaining. Jadyn Wooten added 18 points and six assists.
“We know that they're really big, but we also have speed as an advantage,” Wooten said. “We didn't get off to the start that we wanted to, but coming into the second half, it was just something we thought we could take advantage of.”
Oklahoma State outscored UCLA 42-41 in the second half, but its slow start proved too much to overcome.
“When you take out that first quarter, we went toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in the country, and beat them in the second half,” Hoyt said.
The Cowgirls made their only sustained run early in the third quarter after trailing by 20 at halftime. Wooten scored six points in a 9-0 spurt that cut their deficit to 52-39.
“People are going to go on runs,” Betts said, “but we just have to lock in and focus on what we need to do.”
Betts scored 10 of UCLA's final 12 points in the third and the Bruins went into the fourth ahead 64-47. She had another 10 points in the fourth when UCLA fans were on their feet for the final seconds.
Gianna Kneepkens added 15 points and Kiki Rice and Gabriela Jaquez had 10 apiece for the Bruins, who will lose all three after this season.
The Bruins stunned the Cowgirls to start the game, scoring the first nine points and racing to a 21-6 lead after the first quarter, when the Cowgirls had six turnovers and missed 14 of 16 shots.
UCLA opened the second on an 18-8 run, including nine in a row. When the Bruins missed short shots in the paint, Betts grabbed offensive rebounds and scored. The Cowgirls shot 9 of 16 and trailed 46-26 at the break.
After celebrating at midcourt, the Bruins walked around the edge of the floor waving and applauding fans in the stands who did the same in return. Betts is one of six seniors or graduate students whose UCLA careers are coming to an end.
“Just to see all the people waving at us at the end of the game was really special,” Betts said. “It’s not even about basketball to me at this point. The people that we’ve been able to affect and just the difference that we’ve made, I think has been huge.”
UCLA coach Cori Close objects to the NCAA Tournament edict that schools from the same conference can't play each other in the regional finals.
“Now that we have conference realignment and you have 18 teams in a conference, that is a dumb rule,” she said. “Now it's OK, though, that we play a conference foe in the Sweet 16, but not in the Elite Eight, and especially if it disadvantages the No. 1 overall seed and the No. 2 overall seed. We would be better off if we were lower.”
UCLA defeated Minnesota 76-58 in their lone regular-season matchup.
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
