SPOKANE, Wash. -- As Lauren Betts found herself trapped in the post with about 90 seconds left in the game Sunday, she saw Gabriela Jaquez waiting wide open in the corner.
Betts had full confidence Jaquez would be there -- the UCLA teammates have cemented a strong two-man game and have found themselves in this situation before. But this time, the moment was bigger than ever.
Jaquez released a high-arcing shot as an LSU defender closed on her, and as it swooshed through the net, UCLA's first trip to the NCAA tournament Final Four was all but sealed. UCLA previously won an AIAW title and appeared in two AIAW semifinals but had never made it past the Elite Eight in the NCAA era, which began in 1982.
"To do something we haven't done in a really long time or in the NCAA era, and so just really proud, proud of my teammates, the staff, the coaches of just continuing to get better every day and grow from each season prior and," Jaquez said after UCLA's 72-65 win. "I just don't even have words, just so proud."
Since being eliminated in the Sweet 16 by this same LSU team last season, the Bruins have spent the better part of the past year working on their toughness and ability to play through chaos. They said their win Sunday was a result of that work.
"The game was won in the poise and the choice to go back to neutral, get ourselves refocused, and make the next right step," UCLA coach Cori Close said. "That's where I think the game was won."
In a game where the first three quarters were defined by runs, the Bruins built a 14-point lead midway through the third. But they saw that lead dwindle to six by the start of the fourth quarter. With just under four minutes left in the game, LSU had pulled to within three.
"There were lots of things that we could have gotten down about this game," Betts said. "I think we were just all mentally prepared, and we've toughened up since midseason ... as teammates."
Added junior guard Kiki Rice: " I think it's character. All season we've talked about how our talent is our floor and our character is our ceiling. And for us to go and tap into that toughness and to just be the tougher team every single day out there on the court is really the difference for us."
After the Tigers made it a one-possession game, UCLA clamped down on defense -- Betts held LSU to 0-of-4 shooting on shots she contested in the fourth quarter, according to ESPN Research -- and drew two fouls, and Jaquez knocked down her dagger shot.
That bucket perfectly encapsulated the kind of offense the Bruins relied on all game. UCLA hit 10 3-pointers against LSU, and Jaquez's career-high four 3s and Timea Gardiner's five make them the first set of Bruins teammates to each make at least four triples in an NCAA tournament game in the past 25 years. Twenty of UCLA's 24 3-point attempts were uncontested, per ESPN Research.
"If you would have said, 'Hey, you're going to win this game by hitting 10 3s,' I would have told you you're crazy," Close said.
Entering Sunday, UCLA was shooting nearly 53% from inside the paint. But against LSU the Bruins scored just 16 points on 32% shooting in that area. They shot 65% from everywhere else.
A big part of that was the pressure LSU was putting on Betts, who finished with 17 points on 7-of-14 shooting, 7 rebounds and 5 turnovers.
Betts picked up her second foul midway through the first quarter, the first time in her career she has picked up multiple fouls in an opening period. She was forced to sit through the rest of the half.
Without Betts in the first quarter, UCLA went 0-of-6 from the floor. But then something changed in the second quarter. Instead of falling further into a hole, the Bruins went on a run, opening the quarter by outscoring LSU 14-4, boosted by three of Gardiner's 3-pointers. UCLA held a six-point lead entering halftime.
"The game was lost in the second quarter," LSU coach Kim Mulkey said. "That's where the game was lost. We didn't capitalize on Betts being off the floor."
"This is what we're talking about when we have a deep team," Betts said. "I don't have to be in the game at all times. I have a team full of players who are just amazing and talented in their own right, and they put in the work. So I knew that as I was sitting there. ... They have my back."
Jaquez led the Bruins in scoring with 18 points on 5-of-7 shooting, while Gardiner finished with 15 points. Rice had a slow scoring night but dished out eight assists.
The way Betts handled her foul trouble and what Close called a below-average second half from the 6-foot-8 center also showed how UCLA has grown.
"A year ago that would have, like, sent her over the edge in terms of that she would have been so mad at herself and beat herself up," Close said. "I think every game is going to create sort of chaos, going to create adversity, and which team can respond and have awareness of what that's like and find other ways to make, to affect winning, that's just really cool to see Lauren do that."