- Share via
INDIANAPOLIS — Holding her cellphone at an angle as she sat down in the interview room, championship hat atop her head, Lauren Betts smiled for the selfie alongside teammates Kiki Rice and Londynn Jones.
The picture captured more than a moment, seizing on the combined effort that was needed Sunday afternoon inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
No matter the obstacle against their archrival, Betts and her UCLA teammates had a counter. Foul trouble, ugly turnovers, a double-digit deficit against an opponent that had handed the Bruins their only two losses this season — none of it could stop this team on this day.
After second-seeded UCLA withstood every challenge, rallying for an improbable 72-67 victory over top-seeded USC in the Big Ten women’s basketball tournament championship, the Bruins mobbed one another at midcourt, streamers and confetti falling from the rafters.
Diana Taurasi is defined by the bravado and swag that she played with every time she stepped on the basketball court, inspiring others.
Finally, after a disappointing loss to the Trojans at the Galen Center was followed by an even more deflating setback against their rivals at Pauley Pavilion, the Bruins mustered a strong rebuttal heading into the season’s most important stretch.
Tears flowed freely amid the smiles on the court as players and coaches celebrated UCLA’s first tournament championship since it won the Pac-10 title in 2006. All it took was outscoring the Trojans 37-22 in the second half.
“Thankful and humbled to watch them persevere, to grow, to find ways to win, to be committed to selflessness, just so grateful,” UCLA coach Cori Close said after a triumph that might have secured the No. 1 overall seed for her team in the NCAA tournament. “This group just said, ‘We’ll find a way.’ There was no panic.”
Trailing by 13 points early in the third quarter, UCLA (30-2) made a smart adjustment on JuJu Watkins — it stopped fouling her. The USC superstar scored 18 of her 29 points in the first half, partly on the strength of making seven of eight free throws.
Watkins took only two free throws and made only four of 15 shots after halftime, befuddled by the Bruins switching defenders on her and mixing in a box-and-one defense.
“We struggled in the second half,” Watkins said bluntly after failing to match the efficiency of the first two games in the series, when she scored 38 points at the Galen Center and 30 points at Pauley Pavilion while helping the Trojans (28-3) win the conference’s regular-season title.
Channeling the words of legendary UCLA coach John Wooden, who asked his players to be at their best when their best was needed, Betts took her play to another level in the fourth quarter. Her three blocks in the final 10 minutes included an emphatic rejection of Watkins. She also powered through a double team for a layup that put UCLA up 66-60 with 45 seconds left.
“I think it was the mentality that I had going into the second half that I was going to keep being aggressive,” Betts said. “Kiki spoke to me in the locker room as well, just reminding me that I’m not going to get calls, but I just have to keep playing hard, and the outcome will speak for itself.”
Rice and Jones (13 points apiece) each added two free throws to thwart the Trojans’ rally.
Betts scored 13 of her 17 points in the second half, adding five rebounds and four blocks on the way to earning the tournament’s most outstanding player award. The UCLA band serenaded Betts by chanting her name as the award was announced.
“Kind of speechless right now, I’m not going to lie,” Betts said a few moments after taking that postgame selfie. “Just speechless.”
Eric Dailey Jr. finishes with 25 points and Skyy Clark scores 17 as UCLA blows out rival USC 90-63 to head into the Big Ten tournament on a dominant note.
Watkins passed Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer, for the second-most points scored through two college seasons. Watkins’ 1,684 points trail only Ohio State’s Kelsey Mitchell (1,762), with as many as six games left to set the record.
That will serve as no consolation given how her team wilted. The Trojans made just two of 15 three-pointers in the second half and endured several lengthy scoreless stretches, missing 15 consecutive shots at one point. Close noted her team had nine kills, which are defined as three consecutive defensive stops.
Both teams were sloppy, the Bruins forcing 19 turnovers while committing 24. But as is often the case, UCLA took its lead from its coach. After Jones lost her handle on the ball for a turnover with an open lane toward the basket midway through the fourth quarter, Close clapped in encouragement.
Trailing 48-35 after USC’s Talia von Oelhoffen buried a three-pointer to open the third quarter, the Bruins refused to fold. They used a 16-2 surge spanning the end of the third quarter and beginning of the fourth to take a 58-54 lead after Rice rebounded her own miss for a putback. UCLA was on its way.
This was a moment that might have felt like a lifetime in the making for Close, who had always come up short during her first 13 seasons at the school in the bid for a conference title. Whether it was the longstanding dominance of Stanford or pockets of brilliance from Oregon or Oregon State before the emergence of Watkins and the Trojans, Close’s teams could never break through. Until Sunday.
After climbing a ladder to snip the final strand of net on one basket, Close twirled the nylon over her head as UCLA fans who had clambered onto the floor roared. Afterward, Close thanked former Stanford assistant coach Julie Plank for encouraging her at a high school camp when others had told Close she was too short and too slow.
“She pulled me aside after camp and said, ‘You can do this,’ ” Close said, “and she was here tonight, and I got to hug her and say thank you.”
It was the Trojans who were in a celebratory mood at halftime given what had unfolded. USC’s Clarice Akunwafo blocked a jumper by Elina Aarnisalo, triggering a fast break that ended with Kennedy Smith zipping a pass from under the basket to Avery Howell, who rose for a three-pointer that increased her team’s lead to 45-35.
Trojans players flapped towels in appreciation on the bench before storming the court to mob their teammates. Almost every remaining celebration would belong to the Bruins after they refused to fold.
“I really wondered what their eyes were going to look like when I went into the locker room at halftime,” Close said of her players, “and they were poised and determined. They knew they had not played their best, and they didn’t do the things we needed to do, but they still believed they could turn it around.
“I just said, ‘Look, here’s where it lies. You know, if we don’t win the toughness battle and the possessions battle and we don’t get stops, we’re not [going to win]. How bad do you want to win? What does this mean to you? They’re like, ‘We got you, coach. We’re going to get this thing done. So to hold them to nine points in the third and 13 in the fourth, I guess I can believe them.”
There’s always a chance there might be one more chapter left in the rivalry this season. These teams, both likely No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament, could meet again in the Final Four in Tampa, Fla.
“I remember the very first time we played at their place,” Close said, before referencing her USC counterpart, “Lindsay [Gottlieb] said, ‘I’m really hoping we’re going to get to do this four times. I think that it would mean a lot for us both to be No. 1 seeds. I think you have to prove yourself, right? Your play has to back that up, and I hope we do get a chance to do it in Tampa a fourth time.”
