LOS ANGELES — Lauren Betts could hardly hold herself together as she walked over to UCLA women’s basketball assistant coach Shannon LeBeauf.
“She just had tears in her eyes,” head coach Cori Close told reporters. “She was so excited.”
The 6-foot-7 Bruins center was named an Associated Press and USBWA First Team All-American earlier that morning but didn’t find out until after practice had concluded. She’s the first UCLA women’s basketball player to receive the AP honor and joins Natalie Williams, a two-time selection in 1993-94, as the only Bruins to be USBWA first-teamers.
“To watch her improvement on the board is great,” Close said, “but to watch her have the courage to understand, yes, you’re one of the best players in the country – what’s helped her in that is that she’s realized that she’s so much more than that, and that has freed her up to be all that she can be as a basketball player.”
The accolades didn’t stop there. Point guard Kiki Rice earned a spot on the AP All-America Honorable Mention list and Close was named the USBWA Coach of the Year. The awards are dovetailing nicely with the Bruins’ refreshed confidence, coming at an opportune time after being announced as the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.
UCLA (30-2), which is set to host Southern in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at 7 p.m. Friday, appears to have been on a high since avenging its losses to USC to win the Big Ten Conference Tournament.
“We had a really good week of practices and I feel like this team is really taking a step in the right direction in terms of how we’re leading ourselves,” Rice told reporters. “And just the energy that we’re bringing and our focus. That’s really good because we’re at the most important time of the year.”
UCLA and Southern will be meeting for the first time and are just building connections, but the Bruins have played HBCUs throughout Pac-12 history and Close coached against Florida A&M when…
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