NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament

SPOKANE, Washington — Don’t sleep on UCLA.

I don’t mean don’t overlook them. I mean don’t let your guard down even for a second. Do it, and you’ll get an idea of what it feels like to be roadkill.

Ole Miss went toe to toe with the overall No. 1 seed for the first half Friday night, no doubt sparking ideas of another NCAA tournament upset by the Rebels. Two minutes into the second half, however, it was obvious UCLA is nothing like that No. 1-seeded Stanford team Ole Miss stunned two years ago.

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Londynn Jones opened the third quarter with a 3-pointer, Kiki Rice scored on a driving layup and then drained a 3 after Lauren Betts kicked the ball out to her. Kharyssa Richardson stopped the run with a layup, but it was merely an interruption rather than a reprieve.

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Betts made a pair of turn-around jumpers, Jones hit another 3 and UCLA could start game-planning for LSU. The final score was UCLA 76, Ole Miss 62, but really, the game wasn’t that close.

UCLA has plenty of different ways to hurt an opponent. Find a way to corral Betts, and Rice will pop off. Bottle her up, and it frees Jones up to start raining 3s. Contain all of them and you probably have octopus arms. But it won’t matter because Gabriela Jaquez will eat your lunch.

What makes the Bruins truly scary, however, is how quickly they can pile up the points.

Just as Richmond did in the second round of the NCAA tournament, Ole Miss was doing everything right. Until it wasn’t, and the Rebels found themselves chasing a boulder downhill.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.