Latest news with #SpokaneRegion1
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Postgame Handshake Between Kim Mulkey, UCLA Star Turns Heads
It was a good run for Kim Mulkey and the LSU Tigers, but, for a second consecutive season, their season ends in the Elite Eight. On Sunday afternoon, Mulkey and No. 3 seed LSU fell to Lauren Betts and No. 1 UCLA Bruins 72-65 in the Spokane Region 1 final of the NCAA Tournament. Advertisement LSU's Aneesah Morrow, in her final college game, finished with 15 points on 7-of-19 shooting and seven rebounds. She also suffered a broken nose in the second half but still continued playing. Meanwhile, Betts made 17 points on 7-of-14 shooting, seven rebounds and six blocks for UCLA. After the game, Mulkey and Betts met each other midcourt for a postgame handshake. They greeted each other with a hug and a few words before going their separate ways. Betts, the 6-foot-7 junior out of Centennial, Colorado, is now heading to her first Final Four in her three-year college career. In her freshman season with the Stanford Cardinal, she reached the second round. Last season with UCLA, she reached the Sweet 16. Advertisement Mulkey was well aware of Betts' talent heading into the matchup, having nothing but praise for the Bruins center, who averages 20.1 points and 9.7 rebounds (prior to Elite Eight). 'Just watching her from high school until today, it's amazing how good she is,' Mulkey said. "Certainly, her height is an advantage, and we're not going to grow that tall overnight. But we have to battle and do the best we can.' LSU Lady Tigers head coach Kim MulkeyJames Snook-Imagn Images Betts and UCLA will now head to Tampa, Florida, for the Final Four, where they will face the winner of a JuJu Watkins-less No. 1 seed USC Trojans vs. Paige Bueckers and No. 2 seed UConn Huskies. Related: Angel Reese's Immediate Reaction to Juju Watkins' Gruesome Injury
Washington Post
31-03-2025
- Sport
- Washington Post
Much more than Lauren Betts, UCLA denies LSU to roar into the Final Four
SPOKANE, Wash. — Kim Mulkey got exactly what she wanted: The LSU women's basketball coach, impossible to miss in a flowery purple sports coat, worked the referees from the opening tip, encouraging them to catch UCLA star Lauren Betts swinging her elbows or camping out too long in the paint. As the first quarter neared its end Sunday afternoon, Betts was whistled for her second foul after her right elbow connected with Tigers center Aalyah Del Rosario's head. The top-seeded Bruins' all-American center would be relegated to the bench with foul trouble for the rest of the half. The 6-foot-7 Betts had carried the Bruins to this Spokane Region 1 final, so her extended absence proved pivotal — but not how Mulkey had hoped. UCLA held down the fort as Betts sat for more than 10 minutes, outscoring No. 3 LSU by 10 points in the second quarter. Once Betts returned, the Bruins opened a double-digit lead in the third quarter and held off several spirited LSU rallies to claim a 72-65 victory at Spokane Arena. With the win, UCLA advanced to the Final Four of the NCAA women's tournament for the first time. 'The game was lost in the second quarter,' Mulkey said. 'We didn't capitalize on Betts being off the floor. Betts did not beat us. We guarded her as tough as we could guard her. We allowed perimeter threes and other people to step up.' Betts was named the region's most outstanding player after finishing with 17 points, seven rebounds and six blocks, but her methodical offense around the hoop and diligent paint protection on defense would have been squandered if not for junior guard Gabriela Jaquez and junior forward Timea Gardiner. Jaquez had a team-high 18 points and hit four three-pointers, including a dagger with less than two minutes left set up by a kickout pass from Betts. 'The moment was so big,' Betts said. 'I found Gabs, and she stays ready. I was so happy for her — pure joy. I have full confidence in [my teammates]. I was more mad at myself that I got the two fouls. This is what we're talking about when we say we're a deep team. They had my back.' Gardiner came off the bench to make five three-pointers, finishing with 15 points just one game after she went scoreless in a Sweet 16 win over Mississippi on Friday. Her contributions were especially crucial because UCLA's 38.2 percent shooting was its lowest mark during a win this season. '[Overcoming Betts's foul trouble] says a lot about the mental toughness of our team,' UCLA Coach Cori Close said. 'Two nights ago, [Gardiner] had one of her hardest nights. It was so uncharacteristic. I texted her: 'We need you to respond, and we believe in you.' I was pretty confident she was going to respond in a major way.' The Bruins' long and physical defense made life difficult for the Tigers, who managed just eight fast-break points, six bench points and five three-pointers. Aneesah Morrow, LSU's star forward, was held to 15 points on 7-for-19 shooting, and she suffered a bloody nose during a second-half collision with teammate Sa'Myah Smith. Close noted that UCLA (34-2) executed two 'kills' — her staff's term for three consecutive defensive stops — in the decisive second quarter. LSU (31-6) scored just 12 points in the period, and junior guard Flau'jae Johnson, who poured in 24 of her game-high 28 points during a second-half flurry, took the blame for the Tigers' poor execution. 'I didn't have a good second quarter,' she said. 'I feel like I made the team go into a drought. I just tried to come back in the second half, not forcing it, just play within the system and try to make some stuff happen. A lot of my turnovers, I don't think [UCLA] did anything. I think it was unforced. It was on me.' For UCLA, the victory provided a measure of revenge after it fell to LSU in the Sweet 16 last year, and it stood as further evidence that it is a team with all the ingredients needed to win the national title. Betts waved goodbye to the Tigers' bench with both hands after the buzzer sounded, and the Bruins bounced around gleefully after making school history. Two more wins will give UCLA an NCAA championship to go with the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women title that the school claimed in 1978. 'Since we lost [to LSU] a year ago, we've remembered that and used it as fuel,' Jaquez said. 'We've all gotten better and grown from that. I couldn't be more proud to be a part of this team.' The Bruins now head to Tampa, where they will face the winner of Spokane's other region final between top-seeded USC and second-seeded Connecticut. (Those teams meet Monday.) UCLA's only losses came to USC, defeats that the Bruins avenged in the Big Ten tournament title game. Those three meetings preceded USC star JuJu Watkins's season-ending knee injury in the second round of this tournament. A relieved Betts laughed when asked whether she had a rooting interest between the Trojans and Huskies, choosing to play up the Bruins' growth rather than provide bulletin-board material for their crosstown rivals. 'There were a lot of things we could have gotten down about,' Betts said. 'We had fouls, and we had people maybe not getting calls. I think we were all mentally prepared, and we've toughened up since midseason. We've learned a lot.'
Miami Herald
29-03-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Facing LSU, Lauren Betts hopes to send UCLA to first-ever Final Four
Lauren Betts leads Spokane Region 1 top seed UCLA into Sunday's Elite Eight showdown with No. 3 LSU, looking to send the Bruins to their first-ever Final Four. Betts guided UCLA (33-2) to the brink of unprecedented postseason success with consecutive games of unrivaled excellence in recent NCAA history. With 31 points on 15-of-16 shooting from the floor and 10 rebounds in the Bruins' 76-62 Sweet 16 win over Ole Miss on Friday, Betts became the first Division I player with 30 or more points on at least 80 percent field-goal shooting and 10-plus rebounds in back-to-back games in 20 years, per ESPN. LSU (31-5) will defend Betts with a combination of its talented frontcourt, most notably Sa'Myah Smith, who played all 40 minutes of the Tigers 80-73 win over NC State on Friday. However, LSU will try to find a balance guarding the dominant Betts without freeing up other Bruins. "If you focus too much on Betts, she will pick you apart and find her open teammates," said LSU coach Kim Mulkey. Indeed, UCLA's critical 12-2 run coming out of halftime on Friday jump-started when Kiki Rice and Londynn Jones hit 3-pointers. Likewise, LSU's multidimensional offense presents challenges for UCLA. Aneesah Morrow and Flau'jae Johnson average 18.8 and 18.3 points per game, respectively, with Mikaylah Williams adding another 17.5. Morrow also leads the nation in rebounding at 13.7 per game. "Morrow, she's just a beast on the boards," Betts said. "We're just going to have to come out with a really physical mentality and just (make) sure that we don't rely on our height, that we actually find a body and box somebody out." LSU bounced UCLA from the NCAA Tournament in last year's Sweet 16, 78-69. Johnson led the Tigers with a 24-point, 12-rebound double-double. Betts went for 14 points and 17 rebounds but was held to 4-of-9 shooting from the floor and went only 6-for-11 at the free-throw line. --Field Level Media Field Level Media 2023 - All Rights Reserved
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Lauren Betts goes into 'cheat-code' mode, leading UCLA to win in NCAA tournament opener
Southern's Tionna Lidge barely jumped for the opening tip. With UCLA's Lauren Betts on the other side, the result seemed inevitable. Betts had 14 points and six rebounds Friday as No. 1-seeded UCLA cruised to a 84-46 win over No. 16 Southern in the first round of the NCAA tournament at Pauley Pavilion. UCLA set program record for the largest margin of victory in an NCAA tournament game, besting a 75-43 thrashing of Texas A&M in 2017. The Bruins (31-2) advanced to host No. 8 seed Richmond in the second round of Spokane Region 1 on Sunday. The Spiders (28-6) won their first NCAA tournament game in program history by dominating No. 9 Georgia Tech 74-49 behind 30 points, 15 rebounds and six assists from forward Maggie Doogan. Read more: Secret behind UCLA women's success? Confidence-boosting visualization techniques The Bruins warmed up in new Jordan-branded shirts with 'Nothing Easy' printed on the front. 'We' was printed on the back on top of a horizontal bar and the word 'me.' The symbol of selflessness was apt for a team that led the Big Ten with 20.6 assists per game. UCLA had 23 assists on 26 successful shots from the field, overwhelming the Jaguars with their depth and size. Guard Kiki Rice led the Bruins with seven assists and had 10 points. Against Southern's starting lineup that had only one player taller than 5-foot-10, Betts spent most of her time in the low post with an arm raised demanding the ball against a favorable matchup. Since the game-changing transfer came to Westwood, the Bruins have completely shifted their style of play. Before Betts, they were beginning to embrace a five-out, motion offense common among international and NBA teams. They spent the previous two offseasons relentlessly drilling post entry passes. Coaches would not allow more than a few possessions in a row without the ball touching Betts' hands in the paint. The focus on Betts almost immediately turned the Bruins into a national championship contender. 'She's a little cheat code,' forward Janiah Barker said this week. Read more: Mick Cronin, head cheerleader? UCLA's coach tells his players they must believe Barker, the Big Ten sixth player of the year, had two of her three first-half assists to Betts and finished with 10 points, 10 rebounds and four assists. The Bruins turned the ball over seven times during the second quarter, allowing Southern to cut into UCLA's 20-point lead. Crowded by a double-team, Betts was called for a travel and Southern guard Taniya Lawson converted the turnover into a pull-up jumper on the next possession to move the Jaguars to within 12 points. A small but boisterous Southern cheering section behind the team's bench waved blue and gold pom poms and a decorative umbrella. Betts quickly quieted them, fighting through a double team on the next possession and finishing through contact to end Southern's eight-point scoring streak. Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
22-03-2025
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
Lauren Betts goes into ‘cheat-code' mode, leading UCLA to win in NCAA tournament opener
Southern's Tionna Lidge barely jumped for the opening tip. With UCLA's Lauren Betts on the other side, the result seemed inevitable. Betts had 14 points and six rebounds Friday as No. 1-seeded UCLA cruised to a 84-46 win over No. 16 Southern in the first round of the NCAA tournament at Pauley Pavilion. UCLA set program record for the largest margin of victory in an NCAA tournament game, besting a 75-43 thrashing of Texas A&M in 2017. The Bruins (31-2) advanced to host No. 8 seed Richmond in the second round of Spokane Region 1 on Sunday. The Spiders (28-6) won their first NCAA tournament game in program history by dominating No. 9 Georgia Tech 74-49 behind 30 points, 15 rebounds and six assists from forward Maggie Doogan. The Bruins warmed up in new Jordan-branded shirts with 'Nothing Easy' printed on the front. 'We' was printed on the back on top of a horizontal bar and the word 'me.' The symbol of selflessness was apt for a team that led the Big Ten with 20.6 assists per game. UCLA had 23 assists on 26 successful shots from the field, overwhelming the Jaguars with their depth and size. Guard Kiki Rice led the Bruins with seven assists and had 10 points. Against Southern's starting lineup that had only one player taller than 5-foot-10, Betts spent most of her time in the low post with an arm raised demanding the ball against a favorable matchup. Since the game-changing transfer came to Westwood, the Bruins have completely shifted their style of play. Before Betts, they were beginning to embrace a five-out, motion offense common among international and NBA teams. They spent the previous two offseasons relentlessly drilling post entry passes. Coaches would not allow more than a few possessions in a row without the ball touching Betts' hands in the paint. The focus on Betts almost immediately turned the Bruins into a national championship contender. 'She's a little cheat code,' forward Janiah Barker said this week. Barker, the Big Ten sixth player of the year, had two of her three first-half assists to Betts and finished with 10 points, 10 rebounds and four assists. The Bruins turned the ball over seven times during the second quarter, allowing Southern to cut into UCLA's 20-point lead. Crowded by a double-team, Betts was called for a travel and Southern guard Taniya Lawson converted the turnover into a pull-up jumper on the next possession to move the Jaguars to within 12 points. A small but boisterous Southern cheering section behind the team's bench waved blue and gold pom poms and a decorative umbrella. Betts quickly quieted them, fighting through a double team on the next possession and finishing through contact to end Southern's eight-point scoring streak.
