SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Lauren Betts and her fellow UCLA seniors wouldn't allow their season to end short of the Final Four.
Betts had 23 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks to help UCLA rally from a rare halftime deficit and beat Duke 70-58 on Sunday, advancing to the national semifinals for the second straight season.
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“I was pretty mad, didn’t like how that first half happened,” Betts said. “I could have been a lot more effective. A game like this you got to take yourself out of your head. This is the Elite Eight and my senior season is on the line, so got to wake up a little bit.”
The 6-foot-7 Betts and her teammates did just that.
The top-seeded Bruins will play either Texas or Michigan in Phoenix on Friday, with unbeaten UConn on the other side of the Final Four bracket. UCLA is two wins away from the program's first NCAA title.
“We just have the mentality of this being a business trip. I can't emphasize that enough,” said UCLA's Angela Dugalic.
As the team was cutting down the nets in celebration, Betts, Gabriela Jaquez and Charlisse Leger-Walker brought back out the choreographed dance routine they performed with the UCLA Spirit Squad during a men's basketball game.
Third-seeded Duke tested UCLA (35-1) like few teams had this season. The Bruins struggled to get going offensively or contain the Blue Devils (27-9), who reached their second straight Elite Eight thanks to a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Ashlon Jackson against LSU.
Taina Mair scored 21 points to lead Duke, which also lost in a regional final last year.
With UCLA trailing by eight at the half, Betts, Dugalic and Gianna Kneepkens played with more urgency.
UCLA was down 45-41 midway through the third quarter before using a 10-2 run to take its first lead since scoring the first basket of the game. Kneepkens' 3-pointer gave the Bruins a 47-45 advantage.
Defensively, UCLA stymied Duke, not allowing the Blue Devils a basket for the final 6:12 of the period. That drought didn't end until Mair hit a 3-pointer 1:30 into the fourth quarter that got Duke within 56-50.
The Blue Devils got no closer the rest of the way.
“They’re a really good team. They’re super experienced,” Mair said. “When they came out, we just didn’t have a response to it. So credit to them for going into the locker room and making the correct changes to be able to win the game. But they played a great second half.”
Betts, who scored 15 points in the second half, was too much as the Bruins won their 29th consecutive game.
Duke came out attacking UCLA offensively and double-teaming the All-American Betts on the defensive end. Betts didn't get her first points until she hit two free throws with 1:21 left in first quarter. She scored the last six points of the quarter for UCLA, which trailed 21-17 at the end of the period.
Mair and Riley Nelson continued the offensive onslaught in the second quarter as the Blue Devils took a 39-31 lead into the half.
It was the second time the Bruins trailed at the half this season. The other time was in their only loss, to Texas in a November tournament in Las Vegas.
UCLA and Duke also met in that tournament and the Bruins won easily without Betts.
"The Duke team we played then and we played now were two different teams," Dugalic said.
The Blue Devils came together soon after that defeat to win 24 of their last 27 games after starting 3-6.
Both teams struggle from long range
Duke just couldn't make anything from behind the 3-point line. The Blue Devils were 1 of 13 from behind the arc, missing their first 10 shots. They shot nearly 34% on 3-pointers this season. UCLA wasn't much better, going 2 of 14 from 3. Both of those came in the third quarter when the Bruins made their run.
Malfunctioning microphone
Singer Ernestine Balisi worked her way through “The Star-Spangled Banner” with a faulty microphone that kept cutting in and out. When it was evident a few bars in that the microphone was malfunctioning, the crowd joined in as the anthem echoed throughout the arena.
Balisi was given a backup mic near the end of the anthem and the crowd gave a loud ovation as she belted out the last few words.
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness