What a strange night of college basketball. But we have two worthy winners.
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It’s a 51-44 final for UCLA.
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More inbounding woes for UCLA, and it’s an offensive foul. The bad news for Texas is that Harmon’s arm is hurt.
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Texas inbounds to … who else but Carlton? That’s seven quick points for her. The lead is one.
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UCLA tries the Hail Mary down the court and … the officials blew this one. Jaquez pulls down the Texas defender but manages to fall down and draw a call. ESPN’s rules analyst defends the call, but I’m not buying it. Jaquez hits the free throws.
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Harmon tries a shot at the horn, but it won’t go.
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Preston does fine work to create a shot for herself but misses. She draws an offensive foul at the other end, though, and Texas has a shot at a tie. It misses.
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At this pace, the final score would be 40-34.
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Booker zips through the lane but is off balance and can’t convert.
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The Longhorns defense gets a stop, but after a foul and a successful inbounds, Booker misses again.
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Auriemma starts yelling at Staley as they go to shake hands. Staley has none of it. She snaps back.
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Funny thing – there’s actually 0.1 seconds left. Assistant coaches calm the two fiesty leaders, and UConn inbounds to end it.
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Staley goes to shake hands with UConn staffers – still agitated, but it’s clear that the assistant is calmly listening.
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Auriemma has already headed for the tunnel. After the players shake hands, UConn players sprint up the tunnel as well.
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Tessa Johnson hits a pair of free throws to stop the UConn run. Quiñónez tosses up an airball from beyond the arc, and South Carolina works the ball around patiently to Tessa Johnson for another two points. Strong misses just before the horn sounds. She’s 3-for-14. Fudd is 2-for-9. And yet UConn is very much in this.
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Shade makes yet another contribution with an offensive rebound, but Fudd misses the resulting shot. South Carolina can’t find a decent shot as the clock runs down, though. UConn gets the rebound but has no time to advance the ball, and a compelling first half is over.
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Quiñónez picks up her second foul and takes a seat.
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UConn forces South Carolina to use all of the shot clock, and Latson has to try an acrobatic scoop. It’s off the rim, but South Carolina taps the ball out to Mateer, who hits a 3-pointer with just a couple of seconds left in the quarter. We’re tied.
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South Carolina 2-0 UConn, 9:23 left, first quarter: South Carolina controls, and Latson hits a layup for the game’s first points.
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On paper, South Carolina would be favored in the final. They beat an unbeaten and nearly unbeatable team convincingly. But as we’ve seen tonight, when you get the very best teams together in a competitive cauldron, what bubbles to the surface remains to be seen.
Until then …
Last bit on Auriemma – in the postgame interviews, Auriemma said he doesn’t regret what he said in his in-game interview about the officials, noting that he had a player change her jersey after it was ripped. But that player, Sarah Strong, ripped her own shirt. Incongruity.
One lingering question here – the non-SEC coaches (UConn’s Geno Auriemma, UCLA’s Cori Close) both complained about the referees. Close even called it “rugby” in her in-game interview and now again in her postgame interview. Ilona Maher was at the game. She might like a word.
Will the referees in the final be under pressure to call things more tightly than they typically are in the SEC? Or will the referees shrug it off as the opinions of coaches whose teams don’t have to go through the gauntlet of SEC action? Are SEC games more physical because the referees let things go, or are they more physical because the games are closer?
Close (the coach, not the description) gives a lot of praise to Madison Booker. The Bruins made an effort to make her catch the ball more than 12 feet out, and it worked.
UCLA advances to face South Carolina in NCAA final
What a strange night of college basketball. But we have two worthy winners.
It’s a 51-44 final for UCLA.
Booker drives but slips and falls. The ball gets to Oldacre for a baseline jumper, but she hits the side of the backboard. Rebound UCLA, and this is over.
Rice hits the first. And the second.
UCLA up 49-44.
Texas takes its final timeout with 13.3 seconds to play.
Kiki Rice pops free to receive the inbounds pass. She’s a 90% free throw shooter. Texas has to foul her. 13.3 left.
Texas 44-47 UCLA, 14.8 seconds left: Texas last had the lead when it was 2-0.
UCLA manages to get the ball in to Rice, who races around and is fouled. UCLA isn’t yet in the bonus, so they have to inbounds again.
Texas will call timeout before that happens.
UCLA calls its final timeout. Could that be costly?
47-44, 18.1 seconds left.
Texas has it. Booker drives … blocked by Betts! Replay shows Booker put her entire body between Betts and the ball, and it wasn’t enough.
Betts kicks it out under pressure from Oldacre. UCLA takes its time setting up a pick and roll. It doesn’t quite work, and Dugalic misses. Rebound Texas!
We’ll go into quick update mode now. Time remaining will be repeated when I can get it there quickly.
Texas 44-47 UCLA, 55 seconds left, fourth quarter: This is also the highest-scoring quarter for Texas in this game. That’s just 12, though.
Oldacre with a magnificent sequence. She gets a defensive rebound, fights off two people trying to steal the ball, then finds herself on the offensive end standing near the free throw line with Betts between her and the basket. She drives straight at Betts and gets it to go.
Rori Harmon gets a steal. Jordan Lee scores with tremendous poise under pressure.
It’s a three-point game! UCLA timeout.
Texas 40-47 UCLA, 2:18 left, fourth quarter: Oldacre goes to the line, hits the first and misses the second. Texas snares the long rebound, and after a held ball, Booker hits a floater to cut the lead to seven.
UCLA’s inbounding woes continue, and they call timeout to avoid the five-second call.
Texas 37-47 UCLA, 2:41 left, fourth quarter: UCLA does indeed get possession. The Bruins have already scored as many points this quarter as they have in any other quarter. Granted, that’s only 14.
Betts scores against good defense from Oldacre. What a player. She has 16,
Texas 37-45 UCLA, 3:35 left, fourth quarter: Kneepkens gets an extremely fortunate bounce, and her 3-pointer goes in.
Texas with a good entry pass to Lee, who scores for the first time. UCLA tries to throw three-quarters of the length down the court, but Texas picks it off. To the corner for Lee, and it’s good.
Now an offensive foul on UCLA, and Cori Close goes ballistic. Replay shows it’s a good call.
Booker drives. Dugalic blocks the shot out of play. It’s initially deemed Texas’ possession, but UCLA challenges and will win it.
Texas 32-42 UCLA, 4:40 left, fourth quarter: Booker scores! She had missed 17 straight shots.
Jaquez drives into Oldacre, who gladly takes the ball. The big center has been the best Texas player by some margin tonight.
Booker misses. She’s 2 for 20.
Texas 30-40 UCLA, 5:50 left, fourth quarter: UCLA lobs the inbounds pass to Betts. Count it. The lead is 12.
Booker tries a turnaround jumper. It won’t go.
Texas 30-40 UCLA, 6:22 left, fourth quarter: Texas once again contests a possession call. To the replay we go, and Texas will take advantage of the pause in the action to see if drawing Xs and Os will help them regain their offensive prowess.
And once again, Texas wins the challenge. They’re 3-for-3. If only their shooting percentage was within 60 points of that.
Lee throws it behind Booker. Turnover.
Texas 30-40 UCLA, 6:38 left, fourth quarter: This is how bad it’s gotten – Lee drives into the lane for Texas, pulls up her dribble, looks around and finds none of her teammates making an effort to get open. I don’t think it’s a lack of heart or desire. I think it’s shock. They can’t believe what’s happening, and they’ve simply forgotten how to play.
Texas 30-40 UCLA, 7:56 left, fourth quarter: First-year player Crump who scores for Texas after the timeout. Foul at the other end, and now Booker returns. Rice hits both free throws.
Texas 28-38 UCLA, 8:30 left, fourth quarter: Betts travels right in front of an official, who missed it. She flings it out to Rice, who drains a 3-pointer.
Carlton coughs up the ball. UCLA races out in transition. Jaquez makes the layup. Ten-point lead and a Texas timeout.
One question worth asking: Is Booker hurt? She has been on the bench for 4 1/2 minutes of game time now, and she also got some rest between quarters.
Texas 28-33 UCLA, 9:36 left, fourth quarter: Dugalic tries to lob the ball into the post for Betts. It bangs off the backboard – into Betts’ hands. Cunningham fouls the UCLA center and sends here to the line. She hits both. That’s four fouls on Cunningham.
The fewest points UCLA has scored this year was 65, in their loss to Texas. They would need 34 points in the fourth quarter to match that.
Texas had a 64-point game this season. They would need 36.
UCLA coach Cori Close blames the referees and feels sorry for the fans.
“It’s an ugly basketball game,” she says. “We can’t do anything about that.”
Can’t you?
End third quarter: Texas 28-31 UCLA
More inbounding woes for UCLA, and it’s an offensive foul. The bad news for Texas is that Harmon’s arm is hurt.
Texas inbounds to … who else but Carlton? That’s seven quick points for her. The lead is one.
UCLA tries the Hail Mary down the court and … the officials blew this one. Jaquez pulls down the Texas defender but manages to fall down and draw a call. ESPN’s rules analyst defends the call, but I’m not buying it. Jaquez hits the free throws.
Harmon tries a shot at the horn, but it won’t go.
Texas 26-29 UCLA, 0:51 left, third quarter: Dugalic hits one of two free throws for UCLA.
Carlton breaks the Texas scoring drought from close range.
Betts misses, unusually.
Carlton again goes inside against taller opposition, misses once, gets the rebound, tries again, and gets it to fall. And she’s fouled. Hits the free throw to cut the lead to three.
UCLA barely gets a timeout called before a five-second violation is called on the inbounds attempt.
Will either team score 10 points in this quarter? It’s 9-9.
Texas 21-28 UCLA, 1:59 left, third quarter: This’ll help Texas – good defense and a near-steal from Harmon, and that’s a shot-clock violation. The defense is just barely keeping the Longhorns alive.
Texas 21-28 UCLA, 2:45 left, third quarter: Harmon throws the ball away, badly missing an open teammate. Texas surely needs another timeout. And a miracle.
Texas 21-28 UCLA, 3:19 left, third quarter: Booker misses a contested layup. She’s 1 for 15.
Picture-perfect pick and roll, and Rice finds Betts all alone for the easy hoop.
Booker misses a jumper. This has to be excruciating for Texas fans.
Next Texas possession: Booker draws the defense and dishes to a wide-open Harmon as the shot clock nears zero. She fires up an airball.
Texas 21-26 UCLA, 4:57 left, third quarter: This time, they do go to Betts on the mismatch, and she delivers.
Oldacre answers for Texas.
Betts faces up against Oldacre on the next possession, and Carlton races in to snatch the ball from her hands. Not quickly enough in the refs’ eyes – it’s a held ball. Possession still goes to Texas, but the arrow will now switch to UCLA.
Texas 19-24 UCLA, 6:34 left, third quarter: The foul is not upgraded. Betts seems to be OK.
Betts has 6-1 Justice Carlton guarding her. But it’s Jaquez coming from nowhere to pick up an offensive rebound and score.
Crump enters the game for Texas. She steps out of bounds with the ball.
First team to 30 wins?
Texas 19-22 UCLA, 7:19 left, third quarter: Texas wins another video review to take possession.
Booker shoots to tie the game from behind the arc. She misses.
Betts and Booker collide, with Betts getting the worst of it. Booker is called for a foul, and they’ll review to see if the foul should be upgrade. That would be harsh, wouldn’t it?
Score by quarters so far:
First quarter: UCLA 14-6
Second quarter: Texas 11-6
Third quarter (a bit more than 25% done): 2-2
Texas 19-22 UCLA, 7:54 left, third quarter: UCLA’s Kiki Rice drives for a hard-fought bucket, ending our long national nightmare of a scoring drought.
Oldacre misses two free throws for Texas.
Kneepkens dribbles behind her back to create some space but misses her shot.
Oldacre scores in the post. She seems impervious to Betts’ presence.
Texas 17-20 UCLA, 9:47 left, third quarter: We’re back. Texas forward Breya Cunningham picks up her third foul.
Geno Auriemma has doubled down, claiming in his postgame press conference that he waited three minutes to shake Staley’s hand in pregame. When? ESPN has showed footage of Staley shaking hands with him and his whole staff before the game. Was there a specific time that he had in mind? And surely three minutes is an overstatement.
ESPN’s commentary crew was having none of it. “Problematic” was the operative word.
Halftime stats
If you like offense, avert your eyes.
UCLA is shooting 38% (9 for 24). That’s not fantastic, but it’s much better than the 25% (8 for 32) that Texas has posted. Booker is 1 for 12. Rori Harmon has nearly half of the Longhorns’ points, scoring eight on 4-for-6 shooting.
UCLA has the rebounding edge, 21-18, but they have 12 turnovers.
The arena is blasting loud violin music. Time for figure skating?
Halftime: Texas 17-20 UCLA
Preston does fine work to create a shot for herself but misses. She draws an offensive foul at the other end, though, and Texas has a shot at a tie. It misses.
At this pace, the final score would be 40-34.
Texas 17-20 UCLA, 1:17 left, second quarter: Booker snares a long rebound? Can she snap her scoring drought with a transition basket? Nope – she’s fouled.
Another UCLA miss, and Booker goes the other way – then misses her 11th straight shot.
And yet Texas is only three points down.
Texas 17-20 UCLA, 2:00 left, second quarter: Generally, I give referees the benefit of the doubt, especially after dealing with a tirade like Auriemma’s. But we just had a collision in which something needed to be called. The charge vs. block decision can be difficult, but calling nothing shouldn’t be an option.
Jaquez hits a nice pullup jumper. The Texas shooters are still cold, but Harmon gets two points off a steal and a breakaway layup. That’s eight points for her, nearly half of the Texas output.
Texas 15-18 UCLA, 4:14 left, second quarter: After a successful challenge of an out-of-bounds call, Texas comes back out with good ball movement to get Oldacre a clean shot that she converts. Harmon scores again on the next possession to cut the lead to four.
Betts answers with another great post move. Aaliyah Crump hits a 3-pointer to pull Texas within three.
UCLA miss. But Booker misses again. She’s 1-of-11, and it’s been a very long time since that 1.
Texas 8-16 UCLA, 7:00 left, second quarter: Kneepkens finds herself wide open in the middle of the lane and hits the short jumper. She already has seven.
The teams trade sloppy possessions, with Kneepkens guilty of a couple of poorly chosen shots. Booker misses again – she’s 1-for-8. Now 1-for-9.
Texas 8-14 UCLA, 9:05 left, second quarter: Right on cue, Harmon cuts into UCLA’s lead. The Longhorns get it back, but Betts stops Oldacre this time and forces the difficult shot.
Reminder of the first Texas-UCLA game this season …
These teams played in November, with Texas taking a 76-65 win. The Longhorns held Betts to eight points on 4-of-8 shooting. Booker scored 16, a little under her average, but Rori Harmon erupted for 26.
Neither team went to the bench much. Texas only used two subs. UCLA only used one, though she played 34 minutes.
Texas 6-14 UCLA, end first quarter
Booker zips through the lane but is off balance and can’t convert.
The Longhorns defense gets a stop, but after a foul and a successful inbounds, Booker misses again.
Texas 6-14 UCLA, 0:53 left, first quarter: The poor start continues for Texas as they fumble the inbounds pass out of play.
The UCLA inbounds is also fraught, but they manage to get it in play. Briefly. Turnover.
Kyla Oldacre battles Betts in the paint and wins, pivoting away from the UCLA center to score. Oldacre is just an inch shorter than the 6-7 Betts.
Texas 4-14 UCLA, 2:08 left, first quarter: Booker tries to answer with a contested 3-point effort from the corner, but it sails over its target. Gabriela Jaquez drives for a layup to push the lead to double digits, and the Longhorns call timeout.
