This post was updated March 29 at 10:00 p.m.

Senior guard Kiki Rice stood with the ball at halfcourt as the crowd got to their feet.

At Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, the UCLA blue-clad patrons made their presence known throughout the contest, making the over 17,000 seat NBA arena feel like Pauley Pavilion.

However, the opportunities to cheer had been few and far between with 2:50 remaining in the third quarter, as the Bruins had not led the game for over 25 minutes.

Rice passed the ball to graduate student forward Angela Dugalić, who found graduate student guard Gianna Kneepkens at the top of the key.

Kneepkens let the ball fly, drilling a 3-pointer to finally retake the lead as the Bruin faithful erupted in cheers.

No. 1 seed UCLA (35-1, 18-0 Big Ten) wouldn’t relinquish the lead for the remainder of the contest, defeating No. 3 seed Duke (27-9, 16-2 ACC) 70-58 Sunday afternoon in the NCAA tournament quarterfinals. With the victory, the Bruins will advance to the Final Four for the second consecutive year and just the second time in program history.

The last time the teams met in November, UCLA never trailed during a 89-59 victory against Duke despite having neither of the Betts sisters. The Bruins leapt out to a 30-7 lead in the first quarter and did not look back, handing the Blue Devils their worst loss under coach Kara Lawson.

Sunday’s contest was a different story. Duke grabbed the lead with 8:30 remaining in the first quarter and refused to let it go throughout the first half – even growing its lead to 10 midway through the second quarter. 

“We’ve grown so much since then,” said senior center Lauren Betts. “The maturity of this team is what gets us to this point. I mean, we could have gone into that locker room and just kept our heads down and gotten mad at each other and been pissed off. But we want to win this game at the end of the day.”

UCLA had only trailed for a total of 2:57 minutes across its first three games of March Madness, all of which came in the first half of the opening round against No. 16 seed Cal Baptist.

The same Bruin squad that struggled to defeat the Lancers reappeared against the Blue Devils in the first half, as they struggled to generate offense on the perimeter and cut possessions short with misplaced passes. They turned the ball over 12 times in the first half, nearly matching their season average of 12.7 and went 0-for-4 from beyond the arc.

In fact, every one of UCLA’s first-half field goals came in the paint. However, its 28 paint points were nearly matched by Duke, which scored 24 points in the lane and carried an eight-point lead into halftime despite failing to make a 3-pointer themselves.

“First of all, just a compliment to Duke,” said coach Cori Close. “They really came out and were the aggressors in the first half. I thought they played to their identity really well and forced us into some tough decisions. And what they did from the beginning of the year to what they became at the end of the year needs to be commended.”

The Blue Devils offense, which proved its potency inside the arc throughout the first half by shooting off a 53.1% clip, hit a wall midway through the third quarter. It did not convert a single field goal for the final six minutes of the period.

UCLA grabbed the opportunity granted to them, turning its five-point deficit into a four-point lead by the end of the third – punctuated by a putback layup from Dugalić as time expired, once again sending the crowd into a frenzy.

“It just felt like a home court advantage,” Dugalić said. “And the fact that we were able to play in California, I know it’s a little bit away from LA, but it still just felt like a home court advantage.”

After the closely contested first half in the paint, Dugalić and Betts helped the Bruins reestablish their usual dominance inside in the second half. The two anchored an interior defense that allowed just eight points in the paint in the second-half while combining for 24 points across the period. 

“Just holding them to eight points in the third and 11 points in the fourth – that fueled us to be able to attack in transition,” Close said. “We were able to find Lauren so much easier because they weren’t able to set their defense and control the rotations.”

Betts led UCLA with 23 points in addition to grabbing 10 rebounds for a double-double while Dugalić was the only other UCLA player with double-digit points – adding 15 herself. 

Their dominance was especially important considering the Bruins’ absence from beyond the arc for the second consecutive contest. After shooting just 25% from on the perimeter Friday against the Golden Gophers, the Bruins went a paltry 2-for-14 from distance against the Blue Devils.

UCLA will battle the winner of tomorrow’s Elite Eight matchup between No. 1 seed Texas and No. 2 seed Michigan on Friday in Phoenix as one of four teams remaining on the road to a national championship.

“I knew that going into my fifth and sixth year that this team is so capable of winning a national championship,” Dugalić said. “This year, we just have an approach of like, this is a job. This is a business trip at the end of the day, and we have a job to do, and that’s to win a national championship.”