{"id":230881,"date":"2026-03-22T04:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T04:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/230881\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T04:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T04:45:09","slug":"ucla-opens-its-ncaa-title-bid-by-dominating-california-baptist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/230881\/","title":{"rendered":"UCLA opens its NCAA title bid by dominating California Baptist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The adage goes, it doesn\u2019t have to be pretty. But for the UCLA<\/a> women\u2019s basketball team, that\u2019s not the philosophy. Coach Cori Close<\/a> preaches thriving, not surviving, and that\u2019s been evident in the Bruins\u2019 lopsided victory margin all season.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why leading by 10 points at halftime against a No. 16 seed was likely alarming. So much so that UCLA locked in for a 31-4 third quarter in one of its most dominant periods all season en route to a first-round NCAA tournament win.<\/p>\n

UCLA (32-1) took down California Baptist 96-43<\/a> at Pauley Pavilion, advancing to Monday\u2019s second-round contest against No. 8 seed Oklahoma State (24-9) for a spot in the Sweet 16. <\/p>\n

Lauren Betts earned a double-double with 22 points with 10 rebounds, while her sister, Sienna Betts, had her first career double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds. <\/p>\n

\"UCLA <\/p>\n

UCLA center Lauren Betts drives against California Baptist forward Grace Schmidt in the first half Saturday.<\/p>\n

(Jessie Alcheh \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

It was the Bruins\u2019 26th consecutive win, with the team\u2019s most recent loss in November against fellow No. 1 seed Texas.<\/p>\n

California Baptist (23-11) had the eighth-worst NET rating of any NCAA tournament team, but the Lancers have a couple of areas where they excel. It was not enough to beat a No. 1 seed that just needed some time to shake off the rust, but it was enough to fend off a more lopsided score other No. 16 seeds endured across the nation.<\/p>\n

A No. 16 seed has not upset a No. 1 seed in the women\u2019s NCAA tournament since 1998. <\/p>\n

The Bruins took the lead with 3:51 left in the first quarter as a part of a 10-0 run after starting the game one for five. While the Lancers clawed back to within five points, the gap only widened from there.<\/p>\n

UCLA\u2019s size overwhelmed California Baptist, whose tallest player is 6-foot-3 Emma Johansson. Johansson, who entered Saturday second in the country with 2.86 blocks per game, picked up just one block and one rebound with four fouls. The Bruins\u2019 62-21 rebounding advantage came from the significant height gap across all positions. UCLA also nabbed a season-high 21 offensive boards.<\/p>\n

The Bruins finished with 54 points in the paint to the Lancers\u2019 14, along with 30 second-chance points compared to California Baptist\u2019s eight.<\/p>\n

The Lancers rely heavily on their three-point shot, with the eighth-most in the NCAA at 28.3 attempts per game. They went six for 30 (20%) from deep on Saturday, which kept the deficit from getting out of hand early, but the Lancers couldn\u2019t maintain their early strong shooting pace.<\/p>\n

UCLA started the third quarter on a 15-0 run. The Lancers didn\u2019t score until the 7:20 mark in the third quarter. The Bruins shot 10 of 16 from the field and their 31 points were tied for their second most in a quarter this season. <\/p>\n

Chance Bucher led the Lancers with 11 points, but California Baptist\u2019s 25% from the field was the lowest field-goal percentage UCLA has allowed all year.<\/p>\n

Now UCLA\u2019s focus shifts to its next matchup.<\/p>\n

The Bruins are 1-1 all-time against Oklahoma State, which beat No. 9 seed Princeton 82-68 earlier Saturday at Pauley Pavilion. Tipoff for UCLA\u2019s game Monday is set for 7 p.m. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The adage goes, it doesn\u2019t have to be pretty. But for the UCLA women\u2019s basketball team, that\u2019s not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6236,8932,7,100855,9,8,104736,423,39146,104734,18158,1417,7556,595,278,15192,104735,1092],"class_list":["post-230881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-block","tag-bruins","tag-california","tag-california-baptist","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-emma-johansson","tag-game","tag-lancers","tag-ncaa-tournament-team","tag-no","tag-point","tag-rebound","tag-saturday","tag-season","tag-seed","tag-seed-oklahoma-state","tag-ucla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}