SPOKANE, Wash. — Since UCLA lost its final home game of the season to USC at the start of the month, Lauren Betts has changed her mindset. She decided nothing will get in her way.
“Just be aggressive no matter what and do whatever I need to do to help my team,” she said.
That has never been more clear than through the start of the women’s NCAA tournament, especially UCLA’s 76-62 win over Ole Miss on Friday in the Sweet 16.
Betts finished with 31 points on 15-of-16 shooting and 10 rebounds, becoming the first Division I player to have 30 points, 10 rebounds and shoot at least 80% from the floor in back-to-back games over the past 20 seasons, in regular-season or postseason play.
“That’s insane,” Betts said.
Betts’ 93.8% shooting from the floor tied the record for the highest field goal percentage in an NCAA tournament game. She is also the third player in the past 25 years with multiple 30-point, 10-rebound games in a single NCAA tournament and the first since Brittney Griner in 2013; the other player to do it was Elena Delle Donne in 2012. All three of them did so in consecutive games.
“[We] have a generational player on our team,” UCLA coach Cori Close said. “She’s not only dominant for herself, but she makes everybody on the floor better, and so you just want…
