Bruins Ran on Betts, Rice Once Again in Sweet 16 Win

Junior center Lauren Betts made it look easy Friday night, but nothing about her performance came by accident.

She poured in 31 points on 15 of 16 shooting, grabbed 10 rebounds and swatted three shots as No. 1 UCLA cruised to a 76–62 Sweet 16 win over No. 5 seed Ole Miss.

The dominance was undeniable. The efficiency was historic. And yet, Betts’ focus wasn’t on the stat sheet, it was on her mindset.

“Ever since our loss to SC, I’ve just completely changed my mindset going forward,” Betts said postgame. “Just being aggressive no matter what, doing whatever I need to do to help my team, and continuing to be positive regardless of what happens.”

That mindset, resilience over reaction, purpose over perfection, has transformed Betts into one of the tournament’s most dominant forces. And on Friday, she anchored the Bruins to their first Elite Eight appearance since 2018.

Even when Ole Miss’ scrappy, physical defense tried to wear her down, Betts stayed grounded.

“I just kind of assume I'm not going to get any calls, but no matter what I’m just going to continue to play my game,” Betts said. “And honestly, the only reason any of that is happening is because of the program I’m in and the people I’m surrounded by. These coaches believe in me, that’s the reason why I play the way I play.”

Her poise didn’t just show in the paint. It showed in her approach, on both ends of the floor.

“I take a lot of pride in my defense. That’s something the coaches have always held me accountable to,” Betts said. “If the guards are getting hit through screens, any way that I can help them out, that’s what I’m going to do. It’s just something I’ve always brought to this team.”

The connection between Betts and junior guard Kiki Rice was on full display Friday as Rice racked up seven assists, many of them direct feeds to Betts in the post.

“I’m honestly pretty used to it at this point,” Rice said with a grin. “She’s just so dominant. I see it every day in practice. I know you guys don’t see it, but it’s every single day she comes with the same consistency. … I’m so grateful to have her on my team and not be playing against her.”

Rice, who also scored 13 points and dished out three assists in the fourth quarter alone, took on a bigger role as the team’s vocal leader in the second half.

After going into halftime with just a one-point lead, the Bruins made key adjustments, something Rice emphasized the team had to own together.

“We felt like we were better than one point better than Ole Miss,” she said. “We needed to come out and just play our game. Rebound the ball, take care of the ball, and follow the game plan.”

Rebounding in particular was Rice’s main concern looking ahead to UCLA’s Elite Eight matchup with No. 3 seed LSU.

“Ole Miss is a great rebounding team, so is LSU,” Rice said. “They’ve got some great rebounders. … We’re going to need to dominate the boards both offensively and defensively because we're going to need that in order to win going forward.”

Still, Rice admitted, there’s pride in how far they’ve come and hunger for how far they still want to go.

“We all expected to be here,” she said. “We're obviously glad we have the opportunity to play again and play on Sunday, but you know we expected to be in this position, and it'll be a good opportunity for all of us who were on this team last year because LSU is the team that knocked us out. Obviously, we want to come out and play hard and play really well against them, but we're just excited for the next game.”

The Bruins got another one Friday. But as their stars made clear, this run is about more than results. It’s about growth. Gratitude. And grit.

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