{"id":40647,"date":"2026-04-04T06:04:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T06:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=40647"},"modified":"2026-04-04T06:04:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T06:04:46","slug":"ucla-withstands-texas-late-charge-in-final-four-win-reaches-ncaa-title-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=40647","title":{"rendered":"UCLA Withstands Texas’ Late Charge in Final Four Win, Reaches NCAA Title Game"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Lauren Betts<\/a> had 16 points and made a huge block late, and UCLA<\/a> withstood a late charge by Texas<\/a> 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<\/a> 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

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A chance at a first national championship game appearance had to go through the only team to beat them this season.<\/p>\n

Overpowered in the first meeting, the Bruins turned the bully tables on Texas (35-4), shutting down All-American Madison Booker<\/a> 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<\/a> 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 and left Huskies\u2019 coach Geno Auriemma fuming.<\/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

Reporting by The Associated Press.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

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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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}