Rice, Betts and UCLA advance to Elite Eight with 80-56 win over Minnesota in March Madness

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — When the final buzzer sounded on UCLA’s 80-56 regional semifinal win over Minnesota in the women’s NCAA Tournament, the Bruins gathered on the court, put their hands in the air and broke the huddle without fanfare.

Calm, collected and not finished, these Bruins intend for March Madness to extend into April.

Led by Kiki Rice’s 21 points and a 16-point, five-block performance by star Lauren Betts, the top-seeded Bruins advanced to the Elite Eight for the second year in a row and will face Duke on Sunday.

Even winning the next one isn’t going to satisfy UCLA. The Big Ten champion Bruins are playing for more, and on Friday night, they looked like it.

“We found another way to go 1-0,” coach Cori Close said.

Leading for more than 38 minutes of this game, UCLA (34-1) shook off an upstart Gophers team that pulled within 30-27 in the closing minutes of the second quarter as they tried to slow the game down and limit Betts’ touches. The Bruins led 34-29 at the half.

UCLA opened the second half with an 8-0 run, and Minnesota never got within single digits again.

The Gophers were in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2025. They were led by Grace Grocholski with 12 points, and Sophie Hart added 11.

Coach Dawn Plitzuweit said she was proud of a team that put the Minnesota program back on the national map.

“It’s really cool to reach the Sweet 16, but I’m hoping this becomes the standard,” said Gophers senior Amaya Battle. “It feels nice to do this, but we should be doing this every year.”

Friday’s game was a rematch of a Big Ten matchup that UCLA won by 18 points. Rice scored 25 points in that game, and on Friday, she went 7 of 12 from the floor and hit all six of her free throws.

“I felt like we had good matchups and good looks,” Rice said. “When teams commit so much to our players inside, it opens up driving lanes. Teams are going to have to choose how they defend us.”

Indeed, the Bruins are creating trouble for their tournament foes, scoring at least 50 points in the paint in their three wins. It was an insurance policy against a less-than-stellar night from the perimeter, in which UCLA was 4 of 16 from beyond the arc.

“It wasn’t one of our best offensive games. We missed nine layups in a row at one point. But we didn’t let missed shots dictate our defensive intensity,” Close said.

The Bruins held Minnesota to 37.9% shooting, blocked nine shots and forced 15 turnovers to hold the Gophers to their third-lowest scoring total of the season.

“We just took care of the things that were under our control, and I think we can play better,” Close said.

Better will be indeed required for a team that reached its first Final Four a season ago, but left after a 34-point loss in the national semifinals to eventual champion UConn.

“It’s March and we are really trying to focus on what’s next,” Betts said. “We have been approaching this very businesslike. We learned a lot from last year about not being happy with how far we get. We want to win it all. We will do our celebrating for this win, but we’ve got to focus on the next one.”

UCLA advanced to a regional final for the second straight season. The Bruins beat Duke earlier this season.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness