Charlotte GibsonMar 29, 2026, 05:40 PM ET
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- After trailing at halftime for just the second time this season, No. 1 UCLA returned to the Elite Eight court on Sunday looking like a new team.
Overcoming a rare test from a tenacious Duke squad, the Bruins rallied for a 70-58 win to advance to the women's Final Four. It was a turnaround sparked in the locker room at halftime, when the team's six graduating members addressed what led to their 39-31 deficit.
"Before [coach Cori Close] came in, I think we were just we were able to call each other up and out on like what we have to fix," UCLA forward Angela Dugalic said. "I think that's a great quality of our team ... no one takes it personally. If I need Lauren [Betts] to do something better, she's willing to take accountability for that and vice versa. That goes for everyone on my team."
Heading into Sunday's Elite Eight matchup, No. 1 seed UCLA had the upper hand as one of the most balanced scoring attacks in Division I. But the third-seeded Blue Devils quickly proved that their defense was up to the test, scoring 16 points from 12 UCLA turnovers and putting constant pressure on Betts, the team's star senior. In the first half, UCLA went 6 for 12 on plays with a Betts touch, including seven turnovers. Without a Betts' touch, UCLA went 8 for 13 for 17 points and four turnovers.
At the end of the first half, Betts had eight points, two rebounds, two assists and three blocks. For the Big Ten Player of the Year and Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, she said her first-half performance made her "pretty mad."
"I just didn't like how that first half happened. And I know that I could have been a lot more aggressive. I think going into a game like this, sometimes you just take yourself out of your head and you realize, 'Oh, this is the Elite Eight and my season is on the line,'" Betts said. "I've got to wake up a little bit."
When Betts entered the locker room at halftime, she said she felt a surge within her that reminded her why she was there: "I wanted to win this game." It took Betts and the other leaders on the team, including Dugalic and the four other graduating members, to look at each other and hold each other accountable.
Dugalic said that after her teammates communicated with each other, Close came to the locker room "super steady" and gave her team a "sense of calm."
"We understood that the first half wasn't a good representation of how we want to play basketball," Dugalic said. "But Cori came in and what she said right now is, like, 'How do we stick back to our values and stay neutral, focus on next-play speed?'"
For only the second time this season, the Bruins trailed at the half -- the first occurring during their only loss to Texas in November. According to Close, her team's struggles in the first half were due to not executing the Bruins' game plan "very well."
"We didn't control rebounds. We weren't the aggressors in creating catches. We didn't go strong to the rim and execute our stuff," Close said. "Lots of things come into play. That's why we focus on the response."
Betts and her teammates returned to the court with a "not going to lose" mentality, according to the senior. For Betts, that meant doing whatever she needed to do for her Bruins from scoring to blocking shots to getting extra rebounds.
In the second half, Betts followed through on her plan. The 6-foot-7 center finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds for her sixth career double-double in the NCAA tournament. She became the only player with 20 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks in a game in the Elite Eight or later since Brittney Griner in the 2012 national championship, according to ESPN Research.
Despite the Blue Devils finding success early in their guard trio of Ashlon Jackson, Taina Mair and Riley Nelson, the Bruins were able to buckle down defensively in the second half. Holding Duke without a basket for the final six minutes of the third quarter, the Bruins capitalized on their strength. The drought didn't end until Mair hit a 3-pointer with 1:30 into the fourth quarter that pulled Duke within six points before UCLA ultimately pulled away.
"When they came out [after halftime], we just didn't have a response to it," Mair said. "Credit to them for going into the locker room and making the correct changes to win the game. They played a great second half."
In the third quarter, Bruins Gianna Kneepkens set the tone for the second when she made a 3-point jumper with less than three minutes left in the quarter. For the first time since the first 26 seconds of the game when they led 2-0, the Bruins took over the lead 47-45.
For the entire fourth quarter, Betts and her teammates held the lead with UCLA outscoring Duke 39-19 in the second half. By the final whistle, the six graduating members of the Bruins' roster finished with 66 of the team's 70 points. Betts' younger sister and freshman, Sienna, accounted for the four remaining points on the leaderboard.
Lauren Betts said her teammates' ability to turn things around in the second half is just proof of their team's standard and connection to one another.
"We've had moments where we've had close games," Betts said. "I'm just so proud of the way that we're able to just stay calm and still hold each other accountable while also just competing at the highest level. That's just what makes this team so special. It's definitely a group thing. It's not just one person. I think every person in our leadership group has just done a really good job of just remaining that steadiness."
With their 35th win this season, the most in a season in UCLA program history, the Bruins are chasing the school's first women's national title. After falling to UConn in the program's first-ever Final Four appearance last season, Betts said her team has grown in the year since and moments like coming back at halftime in the Elite Eight will help them achieve their ultimate goal.
"We could have gone into that locker room and just kept our head down and gotten mad at each other and been pissed off," Betts said. "The ability to get on each other and still show up and play for each other and come out with that aggressive mentality...that's the mentality that we have to continue to start with moving forward."
