Defense makes up for lack of offense to punch UCLA's ticket to the NCAA Championship

PHOENIX - Friday's Final Four games were hosted in Phoenix, AZ, but it might as well have been the Twilight Zone.

On a day that had seemingly been defined by Geno Auriemma and Dawn Staley getting into a postgame spat after South Carolina's victory over UConn, UCLA and Texas topped it with one of the lowest scoring games in women's Final Four history. 

"I wanted to apologize to all the fans for the rugby match and the 23 turnovers," UCLA head coach Cori Close said after the game.

UCLA clearly learned their lesson, at least half of it, from the way that the Duke Blue Devils made them sweat in the Elite Eight. Their defense was tenacious to start the game, keeping a Longhorns team that has usually blown up scoreboards to just six points in the first quarter, the second-least points scored in a quarter in Final Four history.

Shutting down Booker

Madison Booker, a Player of the Year candidate, was all but nonexistent, despite playing 27 straight minutes without a substitution. Booker finished the game just 3-23 from the field and 0-4 from three point range and at one point missed 17 straight shots. 

"All the respect to her [Booker], but Gabs [Jaquez] and all my teammates that played on her, Angela [Dugalic] played on her... just did an incredible job pressing up, making the shots difficult," senior guard Gianna Kneepkens said. "She can hit those, but I think we pushed her out a little bit farther and made those very difficult for her."

Despite all of that, the Bruins were barely holding on to a lead. 

As stellar as their defense was, their offense ineffective. They opened the game with a 14-2 run, then shrank away, abandoning the play style and individual roles that had made them one of the most dominant teams in the NCAA. By halftime there were just 37 points combined between the two teams, the second-fewest combined points in a half in Final Four history. 

Finding the paint

Similar to their troubles against Duke, Texas' defense made it so UCLA couldn't access the paint. That made things tough on senior guard Kiki Rice and it effectively neutralized the threat that is senior center Lauren Betts.

Texas identified that it's better to keep the ball from getting to Betts than it is to try and contain Betts herself, no matter how many players are put on her. 

"The biggest compliment you can give Lauren was the way Texas felt like they had to play our guards, because that was the only way that we weren't going to be able to get inside touches, not just for Lauren, but for Angela [Dugalic], too [and] for Sienna [Betts] when she came in," Close said.

Finding the inside of the paint was UCLA's point of emphasis during half time. That didn't come to fruition until the fourth, but Betts was off to the races once it did and finished the game with 16 points, six of them coming in the final quarter.

Blocked by Betts

Her biggest play of the night, though, was a defensive one. With just over 20 seconds left in the game and the Longhorns down by three, Booker raced down the court prepared to lay in the ball and bring Texas to just a one shot deficit. 

She outpaced anyone sent to defend her and leaped for the hoop when she was greeted by Betts, who blocked her shot with authority and even drew a foul on Booker just a few seconds later. 

After that, the Bruins padded their lead with four made free throws in 10 seconds by senior guard Rice and watched as the buzzer hit zero with UCLA leading 51-44.

It wasn't a pretty win by any means, but it is the one that sent UCLA to the NCAA championship game.