No. 5 UCLA women overcome slow start to beat No. 17 Louisville 66-59 in Paris

PARIS (AP) — Lauren Betts had 18 points and four blocks as No. 5 UCLA beat No. 17 Louisville 66-59 in the second match of a season-opening doubleheader in France on Monday.

Timea Gardiner had 15 points and Londynn Jones contributed 13 for UCLA.

Tajianna Roberts had a game-high 21 points for Louisville, which opened up an 18-13 lead at the end of the first quarter but then proved wasteful in attack.

Louisville was 6 of 29 from 3-point range compared to 8 of 23 for UCLA. Gardiner made five of them and Jones was a perfect 4 of 4 from the free-throw line.

The 8,000-capacity Adidas Arena, home to the men’s Paris Basketball team, was just over half full for the second game.

Earlier Monday, No. 3 Southern California scored in the final seconds to beat Mississippi 68-66.

Takeaways

UCLA: The imposing physicality of Betts and Gardiner on defense did much to contain Louisville's speedy attacks. The standout pair also combined at the other end for Gardiner's neat 3-pointer from wide right late in the game.

Louisville: Louisville had some good scoring bursts but could not sustain them long enough to put UCLA under significant pressure.

Key moment

Betts found Jones with a cross-court pass for a 3-pointer on the second-quarter buzzer, as UCLA took a 32-29 halftime lead to stem Louisville’s momentum.