In a year of firsts, the UCLA women’s basketball team checked another box Sunday and has its sights set on the sport’s biggest prize.

The overall top-seeded Bruins avenged last season’s loss to Louisiana State in the Elite Eight, taking down the Tigers 72-65 in the Spokane 1 Regional final at Spokane Arena.

UCLA (34-2), in the midst of the most successful season in program history, secured its first-ever Final Four trip and will face either fellow No. 1 seed and rival USC or second-seeded Connecticut in Friday’s national semifinals at Amalie Arena in Tampa Bay.

Bruins junior center Lauren Betts scored 17 points to go with seven rebounds and six blocks en route to being named the most outstanding player of the regional.

Her teammates, though, stepped up in a big way after being saddled with early foul trouble.

Junior guard Gabriela Jaquez scored a team-high 18 points on 5-of-7 shooting, including a career-high four of UCLA’s 10 3-pointers, and junior forward Timea Gardiner added 15 of her own on five made 3-pointers.

Jaquez, who was named to the all-regional team along with Betts and guard Kiki Rice, also pulled down a team-high eight rebounds and led the way with three of the team’s nine steals.

LSU (31-6) was outscored by 10 in the second quarter and trailed 31-25 at the half despite Betts sitting the entire 10 minutes after picking up two first-quarter fouls.

Jaquez pushed the advantage to as many as 14 with a 3-pointer at the 6:40 mark of the third quarter. The Tigers, though, cut the deficit to 46-41 entering the fourth.

Tigers guard Flau'Jae Johnson, who made 10 of 17 shots and finished with a game-high 28 points, converted two layups and a pair of free throws on the tail end of an 8-0 run to pull within 56-53 with 3:24 left.

After Betts split a pair of free throws to end the spurt, Jaquez tacked on two more before her dagger 3-pointer pushed the lead back up to 62-53 with 1:30 left.

The Bruins, who shot just 38.1% from the field, converted 10 of 24 beyond the arc and 20 of 28 free throws.

LSU was limited to 37.3% shooting from the field.

UCLA knocked off Southern University, Richmond and Mississippi by a 23-point average margin of victory before knocking off the Tigers.

The Bruins will now await the winner of Monday’s contest between the Trojans (31-3) and Huskies (34-3), which is also an Elite Eight rematch from last season’s tournament.

USC lost star guard JuJu Watkins to a season-ending knee injury in its second-round win over Mississippi State.