Top-seeded UCLA women crush Southern in NCAA Tournament opener

LOS ANGELES — The UCLA women’s basketball team kicked off its quest for the program’s first Final Four appearance by routing Southern, 84-46, in an NCAA Tournament first-round game on Friday night at Pauley Pavilion.

Lauren Betts had 14 points, six rebounds and three blocked shots, and Londynn Jones scored 11 points for the Bruins (31-2), who are the tournament’s top overall seed. Janiah Barker provided a spark off the bench with 10 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and two blocks, while Kiki Rice finished with 10 points and seven assists and Gabriela Jaquez added 10 points.

“We talked about our team not being a team that plays not to lose, but go to win and take possessions,” head coach Cori Close said after the game. “And I think when we’re physical, we’re anticipatory, when we’re talking early, when we’re taking things away – that’s when we’re at our best.”

The Bruins will face eighth-seeded Richmond (28-6) on Sunday at 7 p.m. at Pauley Pavilion for a berth in the Sweet Sixteen. The Spiders routed Georgia Tech, 74-49, for their program’s first NCAA Tournament victory behind 30 points and 15 rebounds from Atlantic 10 Player of the Year Maggie Doogan.

The 6-foot-4 Barker was an important part of a 9-0 UCLA run to begin the second half, and she embraced the moment, blowing a kiss to the crowd as the Bruins took control.

“Sometimes (the crowd) just be heckling, so I blew them a kiss,” Barker told reporters. “My confidence is at an all-time high always, so I think I was just happy in that moment. It’s fun to be fun when you’re out there on the court. When we’re having a fun time, we play the best.”

Barker blocked a shot almost immediately after coming off the bench, kicking off a sequence that ended in a Jaquez layup. Thirty seconds later, Barker grabbed an offensive rebound and bumped a defender off her before passing to Rice, who was waiting on the perimeter.

Rice sank a 3-pointer from the top of the key to extend what had been a 12-point halftime lead to 47-26.

The 5-foot-11 point guard had zero turnovers against a Jaguars team that has used its physicality to force 19.91 turnovers per game this season.

“We did a lot of prep this week on handling pressure,” Rice said. “That’s something that teams have done to me in the past is pressure me and get the ball out of my hands, and I’ve just got to be able to take care of the ball and find my teammates. That’s my job.”

Aniya Gourdine had 10 points to lead 16th-seeded Southern (21-15), which beat UC San Diego in the First Four on Wednesday for the program’s first NCAA Tournament win.

“A lot of people underestimate HBCU’s,” Gourdine said. “They don’t really believe that we belong here. It’s huge to put us in the bracket for all those girls who might want to go to an HBCU.”

Back on the same court 48 hours later, the SWAC regular-season and tournament champions had trouble penetrating UCLA’s perimeter defense from the outset.

UCLA held Southern to 11 points in the first quarter and opened a 12-point lead. Rice kept feeding her teammates throughout the first half, and the Bruins shot 5 for 9 from 3-point range before halftime.

The Jaguars regrouped and played the Bruins even in the second quarter, going on a 6-0 scoring run late in the second quarter after a series of calls went in their favor. Taniya Lawson pulled up for a jumper that cut UCLA’s lead to 36-24 in the final minute, then Betts and Southern’s Sky Castro traded layups to keep it a 12-point margin at the intermission.

The Bruins leveraged the early momentum of the third quarter and outscored the Jaguars 21-7 in the period for a 59-33 lead, and the big cushion allowed Coach Cori Close to monitor her starters’ minutes the rest of the night. UCLA outrebounded Southern 44-23, and eight Bruins finished with at least nine points.

“I love how we responded in the third quarter defensively,” Close said. “I think that’s really where we’ve got to have urgency all the time. No matter what the game plan is, be counted on to do your job. I thought in the second quarter we lost track of that a little bit, but I was proud of how they responded.”

UCLA is in the NCAA Tournament for the third straight season and the ninth time in 13 tournaments under Close, but the Bruins have made just one regional final in those first eight appearances. They spent 13 weeks atop the AP Top 25 this season and won the Big Ten Tournament last week by knocking off rival and fellow No. 1 seed USC in the title game.