UCLA women’s basketball is two wins away from the program’s first national championship, and after Friday night’s performance in Sacramento, nobody inside that locker room appears willing to settle for anything less.
The No. 1 seed Bruins dispatched No. 4 seed Minnesota 80-56 at Golden 1 Center, advancing to the Elite Eight for the second consecutive year and just the third time in program history. The victory extended UCLA’s record to 34-1 on the season and set up a Sunday showdown with the winner of the LSU-Duke matchup, with a Final Four berth on the line.
A slow start that defense kept from becoming a problem
The Bruins entered the contest as heavy favorites, having beaten the Golden Gophers by 18 points earlier in the Big Ten season, but Minnesota refused to be put away quietly. The Golden Gophers stayed within single digits for much of the first half, and UCLA’s offense — despite featuring a starting lineup full of projected first-round WNBA picks — leaned almost entirely on two players in the opening frames.
Senior center Lauren Betts and graduate forward Angela Dugalić combined for 20 points on 10-of-13 shooting through two quarters, while the rest of the roster managed just 14 points on 30 percent shooting. The Bruins also went 0-for-6 from three-point range in the first half, missing nine layups along the way, and shot just 53 percent from the free-throw line through three quarters — a figure 25 points below their season average.
What kept them ahead at halftime was their defense. UCLA held Minnesota to just 10 points in the first quarter and forced nine turnovers in the opening two periods alone, nearly matching the Gophers’ season-average turnover total before the break. When Minnesota mounted a brief second-quarter charge — outscoring UCLA 19-16 and shooting 54 percent from the field — the Bruins held firm and entered the half with a five-point lead.
The third quarter closed the door
UCLA’s defense reasserted itself to begin the second half in decisive fashion. The Bruins held Minnesota scoreless for the first 4 minutes and 40 seconds of the third quarter, forcing three turnovers and blocking three shots in that stretch alone. The Golden Gophers finished with just 56 total points, 19 below their season average, despite shooting 50 percent from three-point range across the full game.
The offensive breakthrough came at the 4:15 mark of the third quarter, when freshman guard Lena Bilić — who averages just 3.2 points per game and entered the contest shooting 27.5 percent from deep — knocked down a corner three off a feed from senior guard Gabriela Jaquez. It was UCLA’s first made three of the night and the moment the game’s tone shifted definitively in the Bruins’ favor.
Rice takes over when it matters most
Senior guard Kiki Rice had a quiet first half before turning the game into something personal in the second. She finished with 21 points — her third-highest total of the season — including 15 in the second half, and went a perfect 6-for-6 from the free-throw line. Rice has now scored heavily against Minnesota twice this season, including a season-high 25-point effort in January.
Her ability to draw defensive attention and create opportunities for teammates has become central to how UCLA operates at its best. When opponents commit to stopping Rice, it opens driving lanes and interior mismatches for Betts and Dugalić — and when they shift focus to the post, Rice finds her own open looks. It is a balance that coach Cori Close has built the offense around, and it held up even on a night when the three-point shooting that often makes the Bruins look unstoppable simply was not there.
Close credited her team’s ability to maintain defensive intensity regardless of offensive struggles — a sign of a program that is no longer satisfied with simply reaching this stage.
Source: Daily Bruin