No. 3 UCLA outlasted visiting Princeton on the back of center Lauren Betts, who produced her third double-double of the season, and the Bruins improved to 4-0 with a 77-74 win at Pauley Pavilion on Friday.
Betts made all nine of her field-goal attempts and led UCLA with 22 points and 10 rebounds. She had 11 points in the first half, but the Bruins faced an uphill battle most of the second half.
Kaitlyn Chen scored 24 points for Princeton (2-1) and Skye Belker added 20.
Charisma Osborne had 21 points and pushed UCLA ahead on a corner 3 with 2:26 to play. She knocked down a pair of free throws with 20.4 seconds left to make it 76-72.
Betts pounded home a pair of baskets on successive possessions, and the Bruins closed a 51-50 Princeton lead with three minutes to play in the third.
Princeton led 35-32 at halftime.
Trailing 17-8 at the end of the first quarter, Princeton stormed back with a 27-point second quarter.
The Tigers closed to 22-21 on Belker’s 3 at the 5:29 mark. Mari Bickley’s jumper tied the game at 23. Bickley buried another 3-pointer to give the Tigers their first lead at 29-26, and Belker added another jumper to hike the advantage to five points.
–No. 12 Florida State 79, Florida 75
Florida State sophomore Ta’Niya Latson scored a career-high 35 points and rallied the No. 12 Seminoles past host Florida in Gainesville.
Latson made 12 of 12 free throws, including the game-clinching pair with 6.4 seconds remaining, and FSU (3-0) outscored the Gators 30-19 in the fourth quarter.
Florida (3-1) was led by Ra Shya Kyle’s 16 points in the post, and senior guard Leilani Correa added 16 but was 1 of 6 from 3-point range. The Gators shot 6 of 24 from long range.
The Seminoles converted 20 of 24 foul shots.
–Field Level Media
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