Lauren Betts had 17 points and seven rebounds despite spending the entire second quarter on the bench, and top overall seed UCLA reached its first Final Four of the women’s NCAA Tournament with a 72-65 victory over LSU on Sunday in Spokane, Wash.

The 6-foot-7 Betts added six blocks for the Bruins (34-2), who will face the winner of today’s game between USC and UConn. The Final Four is Friday night in Tampa, Fla.

Gabriela Jaquez had 18 points and eight rebounds for the Bruins and Timea Gardiner finished with 15 points, helping to pick up the slack went Betts went to the bench after committing two first-quarter fouls.

“Credit to my teammates for holding it down while I was out,” Betts said during the trophy ceremony.

UCLA won a national title in 1978 in the pre-NCAA era, but this was its first NCAA regional final win in three tries.

LSU senior forward Aneesah Morrow’s nose was bloodied in a collision with teammate Sa’Myah Smith, but she checked back into her final game for the Tigers without any facial protection and finished with 15 points.

Flau’Jae Johnson scored 28 points to lead third-seeded LSU (31-6), which won the national title two years ago under coach Kim Mulkey but has now been eliminated in the last two Elite Eights.

Birmingham 2 Regional

Chloe Kitts scored 14 points and defending national champion South Carolina reached the Final Four for a fifth straight year, beating Duke 54-50.

Coach Dawn Staley’s top-seeded Gamecocks are two wins away from becoming the first team to repeat as champions since UConn won four straight from 2013-16.

South Carolina will play the winner of tonight’s Texas-TCU game in a national semifinal Friday in Tampa, Fla.

South Carolina (34-3) was stymied for most of the game by Duke’s defense. The Gamecocks came in averaging 80.5 points, but points were difficult to come by.

The score was tied at 46-all when Sania Feagin made a jumper to put the Gamecocks ahead with 4:21 left. Kitts added two free throws 42 seconds later to make it 50-46.

Toby Fournier, who led Duke with 18 points, scored with 3:21 left to get the Blue Devils (29-8) back within two.

Duke trailed 52-50 with 29.8 seconds left when South Carolina’s Bree Hall was called for an offensive foul, giving Duke a chance to tie the score.

Duke worked the clocked down before Ashlon Jackson airballed a 3-pointer with 7 seconds left. Hall got the rebound.

Kitts made two free throws with 5.7 seconds left to seal the win.