Junior forward Timea Gardiner transferred to UCLA for moments like Sunday. She transferred to Westwood to reach the Final Four. It wasn’t Gardiner’s first-ever Elite Eight game. She reached the game last year as an Oregon State Beaver when OSU was eliminated by the eventual national champion, South Carolina.
Sunday was Gardiner’s chance to reach new heights and UCLA needed her to step up in a big way. Bruin center Lauren Betts had her first-half minutes limited due to two early fouls, but Gardiner kept the offense afloat in her absence. Gardiner hit five threes off the bench and scored 15 crucial points for UCLA to help lead the Bruins past LSU.
Her shooting, along with Gabriela Jaquez’s shooting helped overcome a quiet scoring night for UCLA’s starting backcourt of Londynn Jones and Kiki Rice.
“I think we just did what we normally do,” Gardiner said. “One person goes down, another person steps up.”
While Gardiner’s minutes, rebounds and scoring has gone down from her sophomore year with Oregon State, she’s now overqualified for her role with UCLA which helps explain why the Bruins are having possibly their best year in program history.
“Who doesn’t want to win the Final Four? I’ve had connections with a lot of the players previously so I knew. Me and Coach Cori Close were really close out of high school,” Gardiner said of her move to UCLA. “I knew I was coming to UCLA and I think everyone else knew that too. I’m so happy to be here and contribute to the success of this team.”
Now Gardiner and the Bruins will get to experience the Final Four for the first time together.
This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: Timea Gardiner became an important piece of UCLA Final Four puzzle
Reporting by Dylan McNeill, UCLA Wire / UCLA Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
