Things went as poorly as they could have for the UCLA Bruins Friday night in the Final Four national semifinals. The UConn Huskies annihilated the Bruins 85-51 to end UCLA’s season at 34-3.
Everything went wrong for the Bruins, from the constant turnovers, missing open looks to their flimsy defense. It was all UConn for all 40 minutes in UCLA’s first-ever Women’s Final Four. The Bruins looked like a team that had never seen this stage. UConn looked like a team with an 11-time national champion head coach.
UCLA turned the ball over in many different ways: five-second violations, failed entry passes and balls just going through their hands. It was truly a recipe for a disaster for the Bruins. By the time things were over, UCLA finished with 19 turnovers, which led to 27 points for the Huskies. Even with the offense being such a mess, center Lauren Betts still played well, scoring 26 points on 11-18 shooting, with no other UCLA player scoring more than eight points.
Betts outscored UConn star Paige Bueckers, but Bueckers had help. Husky guard Azzi Fudd killed UCLA in the first half and freshman Sarah Strong scored 22 points while draining four threes. UConn didn’t take long to establish control of the game, leading 23-13 after the first quarter and pushing the lead to 42-22 by halftime. UCLA tried to get back into the game in the second half, but the Bruins didn’t have enough shotmaking to ever put a run together.
UCLA has the pieces in place to produce another strong run next season, but that will have to wait until November as the Bruins’ best season in program history came to a close with a shocking and noncompetitive thud.
This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: Dream season ends as UCLA is pummeled by UConn in Final Four
Reporting by Dylan McNeill, UCLA Wire / UCLA Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
