TAMPA, Fla. — Heck of a season, UCLA.
The Bruins women’s basketball team can see the mountaintop, can almost reach out and touch it – but it can’t say it has planted its flag there yet.
UConn stopped the Bruins well short in their first Final Four appearance Friday, routing UCLA 85-51 in a national semifinal game at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla.
I think, inevitably, the Bruins (34-3) will decide it was better to have contended for a NCAA championship this season and lost than not to have contended at all. There was so much gained from the experience, so much to be proud of, momentum and moxie that built up along the way.
But on Friday, the sour ending was sour.
“We weren’t our best selves tonight, but that being said, it was a three-loss seasons,” coach Cori Close said. “We’ll be better next time we’re here.”
These Bruins really believed they could win the national title, that they could slay the decorated dragons from Connecticut.
They weren’t ready for this fun run to end, but they weren’t ready to win.
Not in their first go at a Final Four, and not against UConn, with all that generational joy to draw from and all of its baked-in experience.
And with Paige Bueckers, a woman on a mission to win national title No. 1 before she goes No. 1 in the WNBA draft on April 14. She finished Friday’s game with 16 points, five rebounds, three steals and two assists, including the touch pass to Kaitlyn Chen in tradition that made the capacity crowd of 19,731 gasp – and, possibly, at the watch party in Pauley Pavilion, too.
The Huskies came out looking like they were working off the answer key; the Bruins came out rushing and hurrying.
UCLA immediately had trouble with its entry passes that are so important to its offense, and finished the first period with six turnovers that turned into 10 UConn points in a game the Bruins were losing, at that point, by 10.
Close implored her team to keep its composure. Assistant Tasha Brown told them, “Lock in!” Assistant James Clark: “Stay solid!” And guard Kiki Rice kept telling her teammates: “It’s OK. It’s OK.”
But UCLA kept digging its hole, misfiring and turning over the ball. Eight more turnovers stacked up in the second quarter, nine more points gifted to the Huskies, who had an answer for everything, swarming, hitting, and blowing air into their ballooning lead. They led 42-22 at halftime.
“A lot of it was self-inflicted,” Rice said.
Losing the third quarter – so often the Bruins’ big quarter – 18-15 seemed like something of a moral victory. But the fourth quarter also belonged to the Huskies, 25-14.
“This was somewhat unexpected,” Huskies coach Geno Auriemma said. “You always go into these games, this time of the year, expecting it to be incredibly, incredibly difficult – not that it wasn’t, our guys played as hard as you can.
“I don’t think we made a mistake the entire evening.”
Huskies freshman Sarah Strong – the daughter of former Spark Alison Feaster – led UConn with 22 points points and eight rebounds. Azzi Fudd added 19 points, and San Marino’s Chen, a graduate transfer guard from Princeton and former Flintridge Prep standout, chipped in with six points and five assists.
Overall, the Huskies shot 55% (33 for 60) from the field and 43.8% (7 for 16) from 3-point range. UCLA made only 38.5% (20 for 52) of its field-goal attempts and missed all but four of its 16 3-point attempts. And beside Betts’ tally, no one on the Bruins scored more than Rice, who had eight points, followed by six points from Angela Dugalic.
UConn was the only team this year in either the women’s or men’s Final Fours that was not a No. 1 seed – and still, the Huskies were a 7.5-point favorite Friday – which seemed, before the game, mighty excessive to UCLA fans. It was conservative. UConn’s lopsided victory was the largest margin of victory in a women’s Final Four game.
There’s a reason the Huskies are widely considered favorites to win it all. Which is to say, to win their 12th.
To do it, UConn (36-3) has just South Carolina – a third consecutive No. 1 seed in the Huskies path, and the defending champions – to beat in Sunday’s national championship.
Already, the Huskies have vanquished USC and UCLA, L.A.’s two starry-eyed, top-seeded rivals who auditioned for the lead part this season thinking they had a good shot at it. Instead, they were cast as The Other Teams in the Paige Buckets Story.
Bueckers – who was the national player of the year as a freshman, who ranks third in points and ninth in assists in UConn’s rich history, who had to overcome a torn ACL and a fractured tibial plateau and a torn meniscus – clearly is not trying to go 0 for 4 in Final Fours.
Some of us thought the Huskies might not necessarily have UCLA’s versatility and depth, and certainly not a cheat code like Lauren Betts — who on Friday, had 26 points on 11-for-18 shooting, five rebounds, one block. But they had something else. They had the benefit of being able to play like they’d been here before, because, well, they’re here all the time.
Twenty-four Final Four trips in total, and 16 of the past 17. UConn players don’t even cut down the nets to celebrate clearing the Elite Eight. Why would they? Job’s not finished.
Neither is UCLA’s.
The Bruins have more breaking through to do, still have that big break they’re dreaming of.
Won’t be easy, and nothing is guaranteed, least of all trips to the Final Four. This was UCLA’s first since 1979, when the Bruins’ Intercollegiate Athletics for Women’s championship defense fell just short.
But talk about a springboard into 2025-26: They’ll return Betts, the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year and the first NCAA Division I player since South Carolina/Las Vegas Aces great A’ja Wilson to record at least 650 points, 300 rebounds and 100 blocks in a season.
And they’ll bring aboard her younger sister, Sienna, who was just named MVP at the McDonald’s All American Game. They’ll bring in Charlisse Leger-Walker, a highly touted veteran transfer from Washington State transfer who missed this season rehabbing a torn ACL.
And they should reunite the bulk a team that won 23 consecutive games and beat 12 ranked opponents. That tied a Big Ten record for most victories in a season, with 34.
That’s built on the wishes and work of a special junior class – Rice (All-Big Ten First Team); Janiah Barker (Big Ten Sixth Player of the Year); and Gabriela Jaquez and Londynn Jones (both All-Big Ten Honorable Mention selections).
Look how they responded to last season’s disappointing Sweet 16 loss to LSU: By launching themselves back up the mountain, and getting almost to the peak, as far as the Final Four.
And as they begin their trek back up the mountain next season, the Bruins will be able to say they’ve been almost all the way up before.
“They handed it to us,” Close said. “That being said, we’ve got to learn from this. We’ve gone to new heights this year, but we’ve got to let the pain of this (lead them to) new heights next year.”
Or as Betts put it: “I hope this fuels us.”