PHOENIX \u2013 Lauren Betts had 16 points and made a huge block late, and UCLA withstood a late charge by Texas on Friday night for a 51-44 win to reach the women’s NCAA Tournament national championship game for the first time.<\/p>\n
Manhandled by eventual national champion UConn in their first Final Four a year ago, the Bruins (36-1) dominated their way to another national semifinal with the best season in program history.<\/p>\n
A chance at a first national championship game appearance had to go through the only team to beat them this season<\/a>.<\/p>\n Overpowered in the first meeting, the Bruins turned the bully tables on Texas (35-4), shutting down All-American Madison Booker while building a 13-point lead midway through the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n The Longhorns are one of the nation’s best defensive teams and flexed their D during a 12-2 run that cut UCLA’s lead to 47-44.<\/p>\n Betts swatted the Texas run to halt.<\/p>\n She blocked Booker’s shot with 20 seconds left and Kiki Rice hit two free throws, sending coach Cori Close’s crew into the title game. <\/p>\n The grinding win earns the Bruins a spot Sunday\u2019s title game against South Carolina, the three-time national champions who ended reigning champion UConn\u2019s undefeated season<\/a> and left Huskies\u2019 coach Geno Auriemma fuming<\/a>.<\/p>\n So was Booker after a brutal finish to what was otherwise a stellar season. She hit her first shot, missed her next 17 and finished with six points on 3-of-23 shooting.<\/p>\n Another agonizing Final Four loss left Texas coach Vic Schaefer among the dejected as well.<\/p>\n He twice lost in the national title game at Mississippi State \u2014 once on a buzzer beater \u2014 and watched the Longhorns clank their way out of their second straight Final Four appearance.<\/p>\n The Longhorns got off to a brutal start with six points in the first quarter, shot 38% from the floor overall and 2 for 9 from 3-point distance.<\/p>\n The chance at a second national title stretches to another year \u2014 40 years and counting.<\/p>\n In the teams’ first meeting, Texas dominated early and held on late for a 76-65 win on Nov. 26 in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n The rematch was more like a wrestling match, players hitting the floor and coaches screaming for fouls that weren’t called \u2014 just like in the first Final Four game.<\/p>\n UCLA dominated the first quarter to lead by eight and Texas tightened the screws in the second, holding the Bruins to pull within 20-17.<\/p>\n Betts was held to a season-low eight points the first go-round against Texas, but had some success early in the national semifinals by attacking before the double teams arrived. She had continued success while her fellow All-American labored, finishing 7 of 10 from the floor with 11 rebounds and three blocked shots \u2014 none bigger than the late one against Booker.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n AP March Madness bracket: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ncaa-womens-bracket<\/a> and coverage: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/march-madness<\/a><\/p>\n Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX \u2013 Lauren Betts had 16 points and made a huge block late, and UCLA withstood a late…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[90572,35046,33399,154,27,29,28,1499],"class_list":{"0":"post-234548","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-cori-close","9":"tag-kiki-rice","10":"tag-lauren-betts","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-texas-headlines","14":"tag-texas-news","15":"tag-u-s-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}