INDIANAPOLIS — Holding her cellphone at an angle as she sat down within the interview room, championship hat atop her head, Lauren Betts smiled for the selfie alongside teammates Kiki Rice and Londynn Jones.
The image captured greater than a second, seizing on the mixed effort that was wanted Sunday afternoon inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Irrespective of the impediment in opposition to their archrival, Betts and her UCLA teammates had a counter. Foul hassle, ugly turnovers, a double-digit deficit in opposition to an opponent that had handed the Bruins their solely two losses this season — none of it might cease this workforce on today.
After second-seeded UCLA withstood each problem, rallying for an inconceivable 72-67 victory over top-seeded USC within the Large Ten ladies’s basketball event championship, the Bruins mobbed each other at midcourt, streamers and confetti falling from the rafters.
Lastly, after a disappointing loss to the Trojans on the Galen Heart was adopted by an much more deflating setback against their rivals at Pauley Pavilion, the Bruins mustered a powerful rebuttal heading into the season’s most essential stretch.
Tears flowed freely amid the grins on the court docket as gamers and coaches celebrated UCLA’s first event championship because it gained the Pac-10 title in 2006. All it took was outscoring the Trojans 37-22 within the second half.
“Grateful and humbled to observe them persevere, to develop, to search out methods to win, to be dedicated to selflessness, simply so grateful,” UCLA coach Cori Close mentioned after a triumph which may have secured the No. 1 general seed for her workforce within the NCAA event. “This group simply mentioned, ‘We’ll discover a method.’ There was no panic.”
(Michael Conroy / Related Press)
Trailing by 13 factors early within the third quarter, UCLA (30-2) made a sensible adjustment on JuJu Watkins — it stopped fouling her. The USC famous person scored 18 of her 29 factors within the first half, partly on the energy of creating seven of eight free throws.
Watkins took solely two free throws and made solely 4 of 15 photographs after halftime, befuddled by the Bruins switching defenders on her and mixing in a box-and-one protection.
“We struggled within the second half,” Watkins mentioned bluntly after failing to match the effectivity of the primary two video games within the collection, when she scored 38 factors on the Galen Heart and 30 factors at Pauley Pavilion whereas serving to the Trojans (28-3) win the convention’s regular-season title.
Channeling the phrases of legendary UCLA coach John Wooden, who requested his gamers to be at their finest when their finest was wanted, Betts took her play to a different degree within the fourth quarter. Her three blocks within the remaining 10 minutes included an emphatic rejection of Watkins. She additionally powered by means of a double workforce for a layup that put UCLA up 66-60 with 45 seconds left.
(Michael Conroy / Related Press)
“I feel it was the mentality that I had going into the second half that I used to be going to maintain being aggressive,” Betts mentioned. “Kiki spoke to me within the locker room as effectively, simply reminding me that I’m not going to get calls, however I simply should maintain taking part in exhausting, and the end result will converse for itself.”
Rice and Jones (13 factors apiece) every added two free throws to thwart the Trojans’ rally.
Betts scored 13 of her 17 factors within the second half, including 5 rebounds and 4 blocks on the way in which to incomes the event’s most excellent participant award. The UCLA band serenaded Betts by chanting her identify because the award was introduced.
“Form of speechless proper now, I’m not going to lie,” Betts mentioned a number of moments after taking that postgame selfie. “Simply speechless.”
Watkins handed Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, the NCAA’s all-time main scorer, for the second-most factors scored by means of two faculty seasons. Watkins’ 1,684 factors path solely Ohio State’s Kelsey Mitchell (1,762), with as many as six video games left to set the report.
That can function no comfort given how her workforce wilted. The Trojans made simply two of 15 three-pointers within the second half and endured a number of prolonged scoreless stretches, lacking 15 consecutive photographs at one level. Shut famous her workforce had 9 kills, that are outlined as three consecutive defensive stops.
Each groups had been sloppy, the Bruins forcing 19 turnovers whereas committing 24. However as is commonly the case, UCLA took its lead from its coach. After Jones misplaced her deal with on the ball for a turnover with an open lane towards the basket halfway by means of the fourth quarter, Shut 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 top of the third quarter and starting of the fourth to take a 58-54 lead after Rice rebounded her personal miss for a putback. UCLA was on its method.
This was a second which may have felt like a lifetime within the making for Shut, who had all the time come up quick throughout her first 13 seasons on the faculty within the bid for a convention title. Whether or not it was the longstanding dominance of Stanford or pockets of brilliance from Oregon or Oregon State earlier than the emergence of Watkins and the Trojans, Shut’s groups might by no means break by means of. Till Sunday.
After climbing a ladder to snip the ultimate strand of internet on one basket, Shut twirled the nylon over her head as UCLA followers who had clambered onto the ground roared. Afterward, Shut thanked former Stanford assistant coach Julie Plank for encouraging her at a highschool camp when others had informed Shut she was too quick and too gradual.
“She pulled me apart after camp and mentioned, ‘You are able to do this,’ ” Shut mentioned, “and she or he was right here tonight, and I acquired to hug her and say thanks.”
It was the Trojans who had been in a celebratory temper at halftime given what had unfolded. USC’s Clarice Akunwafo blocked a jumper by Elina Aarnisalo, triggering a quick break that ended with Kennedy Smith zipping a cross from underneath the basket to Avery Howell, who rose for a three-pointer that elevated her workforce’s result in 45-35.
Trojans gamers flapped towels in appreciation on the bench earlier than storming the court docket to mob their teammates. Nearly each remaining celebration would belong to the Bruins after they refused to fold.
“I actually puzzled what their eyes had been going to appear like after I went into the locker room at halftime,” Shut mentioned of her gamers, “and so they had been poised and decided. They knew that they had not performed their finest, and so they didn’t do the issues we wanted to do, however they nonetheless believed they might flip it round.
“I simply mentioned, ‘Look, right here’s the place it lies. You recognize, 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 unhealthy do you wish to win? What does this imply to you? They’re like, ‘We acquired you, coach. We’re going to get this factor finished. So to carry them to 9 factors within the third and 13 within the fourth, I suppose I can consider them.”
There’s all the time an opportunity there is perhaps yet another chapter left within the rivalry this season. These groups, each doubtless No. 1 seeds within the NCAA event, might meet once more within the Closing 4 in Tampa, Fla.
“I keep in mind the very first time we performed at their place,” Shut mentioned, earlier than referencing her USC counterpart, “Lindsay [Gottlieb] mentioned, ‘I’m actually hoping we’re going to get to do that 4 instances. I feel that it will imply so much for us each to be No. 1 seeds. I feel you must show your self, proper? Your play has to again that up, and I hope we do get an opportunity to do it in Tampa a fourth time.”
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