UCLA women’s basketball tops Minnesota in Sweet 16 battle

SACRAMENTO — The tension was reflected in Cori Close’s movements.

Standing and watching with her arms tightly crossed or pressed against her hips, the UCLA women’s basketball coach did not like what she was seeing Friday evening.

Her team kept blowing layups. It missed its first seven 3-pointers. Even with its tight defense disrupting Minnesota, the heavily favored top seed couldn’t get much separation in the first half of its Sweet 16 game in the NCAA Tournament.

As the Golden Gophers made a jumper to keep the score uncomfortably close inside the Golden 1 Center, Close threw up her arms in exasperation and shared a lament with her assistants.

What she saw after halftime was far more agreeable.

Shaking off its worst funk of the postseason, UCLA pulled away for an 80-56 victory over the fourth-seeded Gophers.

The first visible signs of relief for Close came early in the fourth quarter. After Kiki Rice made a 3-pointer, Close clapped and spread her hands as if acknowledging surprise that something finally went right.

Plenty of good things happened whenever Rice touched the ball. Strong in transition, the point guard finished with a game-high 21 points while making 7 of 12 shots and adding three steals.

UCLA center Lauren Betts added 16 points, five rebounds and five blocks in another strong all-around performance. Guard Charlisse Leger-Walker tallied four points to go with her eight assists.

Leger-Walker shifted the momentum early in the third quarter with consecutive outlet passes leading to layups in transition.

After Rice zipped an inbounds pass to Gabriela Jaquez for another layup, the Bruins held their first double-digit lead and were on their way to a program-record 28th consecutive victory.

UCLA (34-1) will face the winner of the late game between second-seeded LSU and third-seeded Duke in the Elite Eight on Sunday.

While UCLA had won by 18 points when these teams faced one another in January in Minneapolis, Close fully understood this version of the Gophers was vastly improved after winning 12 of its last 14 games.

“They are playing their best basketball of the season,” Close said on the eve of the game. “They’re disciplined. They know who they are. They know how each role of their team fits best for the collective whole.”

Minnesota (24-9) made it to this stage by beating Green Bay and Ole Miss in the first two rounds of the tournament. Neither of those teams presented the sort of challenges the Gophers faced on Friday, but they were up to the challenge in the early going.

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters

Despite committing nine turnovers, they never let UCLA get comfortable and never trailed by more than eight points. Minnesota guard Mara Braun’s jumper late in the second quarter made it a three-point game before Gianna Kneepkens countered with her driving layup just before the halftime buzzer.

After experiencing pockets of poor play in the first two rounds, this was the deepest funk UCLA had fallen into. Before the game, Close had said she believed the lapses could be valuable.

“We look at it as everything is a learning opportunity: What does that teach us; how does that make us better; what kinds of things do we need to tighten up?” Close said Thursday. “When you can have certain things in the heat of battle get exposed and still find ways to win and get another opportunity, you can just allow it to make you stronger. And that’s the choice you have from each experience.”

Close said the only thing she measured her team against was its own championship standards, not outside expectations about playing nearly flawless basketball.

This felt like a homecourt advantage for the Bruins beyond a crowd that heavily tilted in their favor.

UCLA had played Oklahoma on this court in November, knowing that it might play here again if the rest of the season went according to plan.

“We’re walking through the hallways, and we’re like, this feels familiar. There’s something about that, right?” said Close, adding that her team had discussed this possibility when it was here earlier this season. “We expect to be back here. And our job from this point forward is to earn that. And to have that now come to fruition, I just think there’s sort of a peace about us that, this is what we earned, this is what we intended. And the job’s not done, but we’re in a good spot.”

Pumping her arms when the buzzer sounded Friday, Close’s team was in a much better place than it was an hour earlier.