PHOENIX – Dancing all postseason, one victory after another followed by lively celebrations, the UCLA women's basketball team waited for the biggest stage to unveil its best move.
A Texas -sidestep, if you will.
With every point coming at a premium, the Bruins outmaneuvered the fellow top-seeded Longhorns in the Final Four, a 51-44 victory in a national semifinal Friday night inside the Mortgage Matchup Center continuing their joyous run through the NCAA Tournament.
Now comes the last dance.
The Bruins will get to play for their first NCAA championship in program history .
It required a breathless finish after UCLA nearly blew a 13-point lead in the final 4½ minutes. Having shaved its deficit to three points, Texas got the ball back before running into a brick wall named Lauren Betts .
The Bruins will get to play for their first NCAA championship in program history. AP
UCLA nearly blew a 13-point lead in the final 4½ minutes. AP
The UCLA center blocked a driving layup by Madison Booker with 20 seconds left before snagging the ball and passing it to teammate Kiki Rice .
"As soon as I saw her getting downhill," Betts said. "I'm like, all right, please block this, just don't let her score."
Rice went on to make four free throws, helping UCLA (36-1) hold on for its program-record 30th consecutive victory.
The Bruins celebrated by engaging in a spirited eight-clap in front of fans behind their team bench.
After prevailing in one rematch against the Longhorns, UCLA avoided another after South Carolina shocked UConn in the other semifinal, ending the Huskies' 54-game winning streak.
So the Bruins will face the Gamecocks on Sunday afternoon instead of UConn, which had blown out the Bruins by 34 points in a national semifinal a year ago.
With one more victory, the Bruins' 1978 AIAW championship banner – won by the legendary Ann Meyers Drysdale and Denise Curry – would get some company in the Pauley Pavilion rafters.
"This is something that we've all dreamt of," Betts said. "We're all very thankful. We expected to be here."
Getting to the championship game required persevering through some epic cold shooting spells and sloppy stretches. The Bruins somehow prevailed despite taking 21 fewer shots than the Longhorns.
"I wanted to apologize to all the fans," UCLA coach Cori Close quipped, "for the rugby match and the 23 turnovers."
Betts led the way with her most essential double-double of the season, each one of her 16 points and 11 rebounds a necessity. Rice added 11 points for the Bruins, who won despite committing all those turnovers because they held the Longhorns (35-4) to 30.8% shooting.
None of the Texas starters reached double figures in scoring, with center Kyla Oldacre's 11 points off the bench leading her team. UCLA's lockdown effort on Booker, who made just 3 of 23 shots, was especially critical.
"Just did an incredible job pressing up, making those shots difficult," UCLA guard Gianna Kneepkens said. "She can hit those. I think we kind of pushed her out a little bit farther and made those very difficult for her."
The Bruins reserves surged off the bench to celebrate early in the fourth quarter after Rice buried a 3-pointer and Gabriela Jaquez made a layup in transition off a steal and outlet pass from Charlisse-Leger Walker, forcing Texas to call a timeout.
Those baskets stretched UCLA's lead to 38-28, matching its largest advantage of the game to that point.
UCLA's second game against Texas in five months in no way resembled the first, when the Bruins quickly fell into a 10-point hole that deepened to 20 by halftime.
Close said the resulting loss was one that made her team question how much it wanted to win.
Badly, it turned out.
Gabriela Jaquez celebrates. AP
Texas forward Madison Booker after the loss to UCLA. AP
Opening with the heightened level of aggression that it wanted, UCLA made every Texas possession a slog while holding the Longhorns to just six points in the first quarter.
"All year long people have been talking about our offense," Close said. "We've been saying, 'No, it has to be our defense that has to be our anchor.' "
It was the first blow in a series of wild momentum swings.
Finally unleashing the defensive intensity for which it's known, Texas started forcing turnovers. Kneepkens was double-teamed and lost the ball. Leger-Walker had the ball stripped, leading to a layup in transition.
What had been a 10-point UCLA lead early in the game was soon down to three. The Bruins' 20-17 halftime advantage read like a score from a bygone era, setting a record for the fewest combined points in the first half of a national semifinal game.
But this wasn't a complete throwback. Avenging its only loss of the season allowed UCLA another dawn in a season that's still going, one more step to be taken toward a title.
"I'm just extremely proud of this group," Betts said. "Obviously, the job's not finished."
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