Swanson: UCLA Women Show Their Strength in Final Four Test
The Team That Can’t Stop Dancing Won’t Stop Dancing
The top-seeded UCLA women’s basketball team delivered a thrilling performance, defeating Duke 70-58 in the Elite Eight. While the game wasn’t a graceful ballet, it was undeniably beautiful in its own right.
Sunday’s match at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento didn’t resemble the fun and free-flowing victories that have characterized many of the Bruins’ wins this season. Instead, it was a tense, heart-pounding roller-coaster ride that left fans on the edge of their seats.
The Bruins weren’t exactly having fun, but they were experiencing the time of their lives. In the end, they pushed their way to the front of the stage and back to the Final Four.
Now, the TikTok countdown is on, leading up to the final exams in Phoenix, where redemption, legacy, and a potential rematch with either the winner of the No. 1 Texas vs. No. 2 Michigan tussle await.
Any questions about how the barely-battled-tested Bruins would respond to a significant stress test were answered during this game. The Bruins are built for this.
They’re not just talented. They’re not just talented dancers (and postgame, Lauren Betts, Charlisse Leger-Walker, and Gabriela Jaquez reprised the routine that went viral when they did it with the UCLA Dance Team during halftime of a men’s game this season). They’re tough, and they’re locked in.
Unlike last season, when their program’s Final Four debut ended in an 85-51 loss to Connecticut, they’re ready for what comes next. They let us know in the second half Sunday.
Duke came into the game still buzzing from Friday’s buzzer-beater in the Sweet 16. The slow-motion-in-real-time three-pointer by Ashlon Jackson that rolled around and around the rim as though the basketball gods needed just a little more time to determine UCLA’s opponent on Sunday.
It was supposed to be Duke, who proved to be a dangerous No. 3 seed. The Bruins weren’t prepared for the Blue Devils to be so prepared for them, trailing at the break for just the second time this season. The first time was in November against Texas, when the Bruins — now a program-record 35-1 — suffered their only loss this season.
Still their only loss.
Even a fool could read the determination on the Bruins’ faces as they roared back from a 39-31 halftime deficit; they had come so far together, but they so badly wanted to go further. No one was ready to get off the ride, not least the six seniors who played the entirety of the second half, seizing momentum and the moment and hitting the Blue Devils (27-9) with a white-knuckled flurry of activity.
“Compliment them,” said Duke coach Kara Lawson, “for turning up their defensive intensity.”
There were 50-50 balls in name only, because UCLA seemed to be winning 100% of them. UCLA players were ripping away passes, diving all over the floor, and dominating the boards. They ratcheted up the intensity so much that it spread into the stands, where the largely pro-Bruins crowd of 9,627 cheered deliriously.
Shots started falling. Turnovers stopped cascading. UCLA found its rhythm.
And UCLA’s 6-foot-7 star center Betts did what she does, with 15 points, eight rebounds, and two blocks in the second half, of which she played all 20 minutes.
“I was just pretty mad,” she said. “You know, my senior season is on the line, so I kind of got to wake up a little bit.”
Angela Dugalic continued to be the matchup nightmare she has been all March; the 6-4 sixth woman scored 15 timely points to take some pressure off Betts.
“I’m just so proud of her,” Betts said. “The confidence and her poise … you could get in your head in moments when we’re down … but she did all the right things and what we needed at the time.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
