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From Ben Bolch: The scene in the UCLA locker room was similar to what you would expect after a long trip in late January.
Players sat at their lockers, some looked at phones, others lost themselves in conversation with teammates, nobody celebrated Saturday at the Golden 1 Center. The only reminder that this was a special season was the large NCAA tournament squad positioned at one end of the room after the Bruins advanced and allowed sticker-slapper-designated Russell Stong IV to take UCLA into the next to lead the round.
When a reporter asked senior guard David Singleton what the team would do to celebrate this latest triumph as part of another deep run into March, Stong raised a triumphant fist in the air from his seat three lockers away.
“Team film session and recovery,” the walk-on interjected.
That’s them. They do.
UCLA made the Sweet 16 for the third time in as many seasons.
The Bruins were allowed to keep playing because another trend continued: the closing minutes were still winning time.
Second-place UCLA shrugged off a huge Northwestern rally that eliminated a 13-point deficit in the second half and held off the seventh-place Wildcats for an intense 68-63 second-round win.
It was a triumph of redemption for the Bruins.
Read more here
Hernández: Don’t fret about UCLA. Resilience is part of the Bruins’ March Madness style
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Tournament results men, schedule
All times Pacific
Second round
Saturday’s results
Region South
#1 Alabama 73, #8 Maryland 51
No. 5 San Diego St. 75, No. 13 Furman 52
#15 Princeton 78, #7 Missouri 63
west regional
#8 Arkansas 72, #1 Kansas 71
#2 UCLA 68, #7 Northwestern 63
east regional
No. 4 Tennessee 65, No. 5 Duke 52
Regional Midwest
#1 Houston 81, #9 Auburn 64
#2 Texas 71, #10 Penn St. 66
Today
east regional
#3 Kansas St. vs. #6 Kentucky, 11:40 a.m., CBS
No. 2 Marquette vs. No. 7 Michigan State, 2:15 p.m. CBS
No. 9 Florida Atlantic vs. No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson, 4:45 p.m., TruTV
Regional Midwest
No. 3 Xavier vs. No. 11 Pitt, 9:10 p.m. CBS
No. 4 Indiana vs. No. 5 Miami, 5:40 p.m. TNT
Region South
No. 3 Baylor vs. No. 6 Creighton, 4:10 p.m. TBS
west regional
No. 4 UConn vs. No. 5 Saint Mary’s, 3:10 p.m. TNT
No. 3 Gonzaga vs. No. 6 TCU, 6:40 p.m. TBS
Tournament of women
From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: Charisma Osborne wasn’t ready to say goodbye to the Pauley Pavilion.
The senior guard led UCLA to a 67-45 win over No. 13 Sacramento State in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Saturday to give the No. 4 Bruins one last chance to score in front of their home crowd this season play.
UCLA meets No. 5 Oklahoma for a spot in the Sweet 16 at 7:00 p.m. PDT Monday after the Sooners defeated No. 12 Portland 85-63 on Saturday.
Osborne showed the all-around skills that could make her a top WNBA draft pick this season with 11 points, 12 rebounds, five assists and two blocks. Forward Emily Bessoir had 14 points and eight rebounds, while freshman Kiki Rice had a team-high 15 points, including 10 points in the first quarter that equaled Sacramento State’s total in the first frame.
UCLA (26-9) is now 7-0 in NCAA first round tournament games under coach Cori Close. A win Monday would send UCLA to their fifth Sweet 16 in Close’s 12-year tenure and the first for their current players.
Read more here
Cal State Dominguez Hills Women’s Basketball Celebrates Historic Run To The Elite Eight
All times Pacific
First round
Saturday’s results
Regional (Greenville 1)
#4 UCLA 67, #13 Sacramento State 45
#5 Oklahoma 85, #12 Portland 63
Regional (Greenville 2)
#1 Indiana 77, #16 Tennessee Tech 47
#4 Villanova 76, #13 Cleveland State 59
#12 Florida Gulf Coast 74, #5 Washington State 63
#9 Miami 62, #8 Oklahoma State 61
Regional (Seattle 1)
#2 UConn 95, #15 Vermont 52
#3 Ohio State 80, #14 James Madison 66
#4 Tennessee 95, #13 Saint Louis 50
#12 Toledo 80, #5 Iowa State 73
No. 6 North Carolina 61, No. 11 St. John’s 59
#7 Baylor 78, #10 Alabama 74
Regional (Seattle 2)
No. 3 Duke 89, No. 14 Iona 49
#4 Texas 79, #13 East Carolina 40
#5 Louisville 83, #12 Drake 81
#6 Colorado 82, #11 Middle Tennessee 60
Today
Regional (Greenville 1)
No. 1 South Carolina vs. No. 8 South Florida, 10 p.m., ABC
No. 3 Notre Dame 82 vs. No. 11 Miss. St., 12:30 p.m., ESPN
No. 2 Maryland vs. No. 7 Arizona, 2:30 p.m. ESPN
Regional (Greenville 2)
No. 2 Utah vs. No. 10 Princeton, 4 p.m., ESPN2
No. 3 LSU vs. No. 6 Michigan, 4:30 p.m. ESPN
Regional (Seattle 1)
No. 1 Virginia Tech vs. No. 9 South Dakota St., 2 p.m., ESPN2
Regional (Seattle 2)
#2 Iowa vs. #10 Georgia, Noon, ABC
No. 1 Stanford vs. No. 8 Ole Miss, 6:30 p.m., ESPN
Second round
Monday
Times, TV TBA
Regional (Greenville 1)
#4 UCLA vs #5 Oklahoma
Regional (Greenville 2)
#1 Indiana vs. #8 Oklahoma State
No. 4 Villanova vs. No. 12 Florida Gulf Coast
Regional (Seattle 1)
#2 UConn vs. #7 Baylor
No. 3 Ohio State vs. No. 6 North Carolina
No. 4 Tennessee vs. No. 12 Toledo
Regional (Seattle 2)
No. 3 Duke vs. No. 6 Colorado
No. 4 Texas vs. No. 5 Louisville
CUTTER
From Broderick Turner: The news that Kawhi Leonard would not play for the Clippers against the Orlando Magic on Saturday afternoon due to a right knee injury was already a blow with so few games left in the regular season and LA battling for the playoff position in the Topsy -inverted Western Conference.
After the Clippers lost 113-108 to Magic at Crypto.com Arena, coach Tyronn Lue couldn’t explain why everything went wrong because he didn’t feel well enough to speak to the media.
It was left to assistant head coach Dan Craig to provide the answers as to why the Clippers fell apart in the fourth quarter.
Read more here
LAKERS
From Helene Elliott: When the Lakers needed him most on Friday, Anthony Davis let them down.
In the fourth quarter, when they were four points clear of Dallas with 7.2 seconds left and needed him clever, he foolishly countered a three-point shot from Maxi Kleber and was called for a foul. Kleber, who had made just 24 free throws prior to Friday and was making 58% of them, hit all three to cut the Lakers’ lead to a point.
When they needed Davis to hit two free throws by 6.7 seconds, he converted just one, leaving the Lakers by two. And when Dallas subsequently brought in the ball, Davis lost defensively, closing far too late to prevent Kleber from sinking a 27-foot jumper for the difference in a 111-110 win over the Lakers that sold out the crowd stunned in the Crypto.com Arena.
Read more here
GALAXY
From Kevin Baxter: The Galaxy lost two goals to video reviews and its starting goaltender to injury on Saturday, settling for a frustrating 1-1 draw with the Vancouver Whitecaps, which saw the team tie in three games in a season for the first time since 2009 left without a win.
The Whitecaps’ goal came in the 14th minute when defender Tristan Blackmon headed a ball past Galaxy keeper Jonathan Bond from a Julian Gressel free-kick. The goal stood after a short look back.
The Galaxy (0-1-2) achieved that in first-half injury time when Vancouver keeper Yohei Takaoka failed to contain a twisted left-footed chip from Raheem Edwards, instead shoving it at the feet of Galaxy defender Kelvin Leerdam, who nudged him into the net for his first goal since September 2020.
Read more here
LAFC
Two of the Western Conference favorites relied on their keepers as Seattle’s Stefan Frei and LAFC’s John McCarthy scored shutouts in a 0-0 draw on Saturday.
Frei made three saves and McCarthy had four as both erased limited scoring chances for two of the MLS powerhouses.
LAFC went undefeated at 2-0-1 while Seattle slipped to 2-1-1.
KINGS
Elias Pettersson had a power play goal, Thatcher Demko made 38 saves and the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Kings 3-2 in a shootout Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena.
Carl Grundstrom and Alex Edler scored for the Kings (40-20-10), who earned a point and clinched first place in the Pacific Division with the Vegas Golden Knights. Joonas Korpisalo made 15 saves.
THE MARATHON
For a map of road closures during Sunday’s LA Marathon, please click here.
Until next time…
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