Betts and Rice lead No. 1 seed UCLA over Richmond 84-67 to reach Sweet 16 in March Madness
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lauren Betts had 30 points and 14 rebounds and overall No. 1 seed UCLA beat Richmond 84-67 on Sunday night to reach the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
The Bruins (32-2) broke open a close game in the third quarter after the eighth-seeded Spiders (28-7) scored the last seven points before halftime to pull into a 36-36 tie.
“We had too many mistakes of how we were guarding certain things in the first half, and they were hot,” Bruins coach Cori Close said, “and that combination was tough for us.”
The teams traded 3-pointers to open the third. After that, UCLA poured it on, hitting four more 3-pointers and outscoring the Spiders 29-7 to lead 65-43 going into the fourth.
UCLA stepped up its defense, too, forcing the Spiders into missing 12 of 15 shots and going 5 1/2 minutes without scoring. Maggie Doogan, who finished with 27 points, was held to two in the third.
“We got stagnant a little bit but that was just us not making shots,” she said.
The Spiders had no answer for the 6-foot-7 Betts, who scored 10 points and finished 14 of 17 from the floor.
“I was hoping she’d get a little tired and maybe she did but she didn’t show it,” Richmond coach Aaron Roussell said.
Kiki Rice added 23 points and seven assists for the Bruins, who reached the Sweet 16 for the seventh time in their last eight appearances.
“Our belief and our motivation never wavered,” Rice said.
Janiah Barker raised both arms, urging the crowd of 6,119 at Pauley Pavilion to get louder and they did.
“We needed that energy,” Close said, “and for them to get so excited about how we were defending made all the difference in the world.”
The Bruins beat Southern by 38 points — their largest win in postseason history — in the first round.
It wasn’t as easy this time.
The Spiders opened the game shooting 73% and led 20-18 after one quarter. Betts had just six points early before UCLA started getting the ball inside to her more in the second.
“That second half we really turned it around,” Betts said. “I think we just changed our mentality defensively. We wanted to get stops, and you know we overcommunicated and we had each other’s back and we played as a unit, and that’s what’s most important.”
Richmond didn’t quit, either. The Spiders outscored the Bruins 24-19 in the fourth, including two 7-0 runs, but they had too much ground to make up. Richmond was outscored by just two points in the paint.
“A pretty cool stat,” Doogan said.
Doogan had six rebounds and seven assists for the Spiders, appearing in the second round for the first time. Rachel Ullstrom added 18 points and seven rebounds.
Key stat
UCLA controlled the boards 40-28, including a 21-8 edge on the offensive glass.
Up next
The Bruins play fifth-seeded Mississippi (22-10) in a regional semifinal Friday in Spokane.
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