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UCLA Reaches Final in Las Vegas

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Michelle Greco had 18 points and five assists, and the UCLA offense exploded for the second straight game Saturday as the Bruins defeated Northwestern State, 82-74, in the first game of the Lady Rebel Shootout at Nevada Las Vegas.

Greco, a senior guard, was ably backed by freshman forward Julia Pitts, who had 16 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Freshman guard Nikki Blue added 15 points and seven rebounds.

The win improved UCLA to 2-1. Northwestern State, which got a career-high 25 points from sophomore guard Diamond Crosby, fell to 1-1.

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UCLA, which never trailed, held the Demons without a field goal in the final 6:43 of the first half and used a 19-3 run over that stretch to take a 43-26 halftime lead. Bruin junior guard Gennifer Arranaga came off the bench and scored six of her 13 points during the spurt.

The Bruins reached their biggest lead, 51-28, at the 17:39 mark of the second half, and still led 76-61 with 3:12 to play. Northwestern State made a last-ditch rally, using a 13-2 run to close within 78-74 with 50 seconds remaining. But UCLA guard Natalie Nakase made four free throws in the final half-minute to seal the win.

In today’s final UCLA will play UNLV, which defeated Texas El Paso, 74-61.

-- Mike Terry

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Alana Beard made two free throws with one second left in overtime to complete a 27-point performance, and No. 1 Duke escaped with a 74-72 victory over No. 17 Arkansas. The victory gave Duke (5-0) the championship of the St. John division of the Paradise Jam at Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands. Arkansas (4-1) got 19 points from Shameka Christon.... No. 2 Kansas State was upset by No. 7 Stanford, 63-57, in the Stanford Invitational at Palo Alto.... Doneeka Hodges scored 14 points to pace No. 3 Louisiana State (5-0), which defeated Florida International, 68-54, in the Thanksgiving Classic at Miami.... No. 4 Tennessee beat Army, 96-44, to reach the championship of the San Juan Shootout in Carolina, Puerto Rico. Kara Lawson scored 20 points for Tennessee (4-1).... Diana Taurasi scored 18 points to lead No. 5 Connecticut (4-0) past Hawaii, 60-53, in the second round of the Rainbow Wahine Classic at Honolulu.... No. 8 Georgia (2-1) shot only 35% in a 70-49 loss to Arizona at Tucson. Julie Brase led Arizona with 16 points.... Chantelle Anderson’s 16 points carried No. 9 Vanderbilt (3-0) past Youngstown State, 91-60, at the First Tennessee Tournament in Nashville.... No. 11 North Carolina fell to No. 23 Oklahoma, 66-63, in the Rainbow Wahine Classic.... Janel McCarville scored 19 points as No. 14 Minnesota (5-0) beat Air Force, 88-75, to win the Air Force Classic at Colorado Springs, Colo.... Cristina Ciocan scored 18 points, and unbeaten South Carolina upset No. 18 Boston College (3-1), 54-51, to win the St. Thomas division of the Paradise Jam.... Erin Thorn scored 14 points as No. 22 Brigham Young (3-0) pulled away from Weber State to win, 51-41, at Provo, Utah.... Valerie King scored 22 points as No. 25 Cincinnati (2-1) defeated Middle Tennessee, 79-59, at Cincinnati.

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