NEWARK, N.J. — The Coretta Scott King Classic on Monday featured two Associated Press Top 25 matchups in its first iteration, a distinction that came in at the buzzer when the latest poll was released hours before tip-off.

No. 25 Baylor, which re-entered the poll this week after a preseason peak of No. 12, fell behind No. 1 UCLA early and never caught up. The Bruins remained undefeated with a 72-57 win in the first game of the doubleheader.

In what was projected to be the day's closer contest, No. 7 Texas never allowed No. 8 Maryland to sniff a lead and demolished the Terps, 89-51.

Madison Booker. That’s it

Minutes into the second quarter, after Madison Booker stepped in for a signature middy near the baseline, the fans behind her bellowed out a directive for her Texas teammates.

“Give it back to Maddie,” the presumably neutral attendees, given their non-team specific attire, yelled.

It was no wonder why. Booker barely missed in the first quarter (6-of-7, including a 3-pointer) for 13 points that fueled a 28-12 first-quarter lead. She played similarly strong in the second, going 3-of-4 as Texas further padded a shocking 48-18 lead at the half. Her 20 points at the break neared a season-high, and she played limited second-half minutes with the game fully out of reach.

Booker fell two points shy of a career high with 28 (13-of-19 shooting) in 28 minutes with four rebounds, three assists and two steals. For the fourth time this season and the sixth time in her career, she did not commit a turnover.

“She’s so talented, so versatile,” Maryland head coach Brenda Frese said. “We wanted to take away her going left and she went left all night. She got to any spot she wanted to. She’s a fearless competitor, and you can see why she had so much success.”

The sophomore self-identified point-forward is back at her natural position a season after filling in on lead ball-handling duties for point guard Rori Harmon. While Hannah Hidalgo (Notre Dame) and JuJu Watkins (USC) maintain their positions as head of the player of the year class, Booker is no less important to her team’s success and should be on the radar in seasons to come.

Her success against Maryland came a week after struggles in the Longhorns’ lone SEC loss to South Carolina (seven points, 3-of-19 shooting). She also struggled from the field (7-of-21) in their only other loss, an overtime thriller against Notre Dame.

For Texas to reach its first Final Four since 2003, Booker has to be as aggressive in finding her spots and the Longhorns have to commit to finding her as they collectively did Monday.

Maryland injuries cloud March hopes

Maryland announced ahead of the contest that junior guard Bri McDaniel, one of its first and most productive players off the bench, is out for the season with a torn ACL. The Terps, who built into an early Final Four contender via the transfer portal, had two practices to adjust on the fly.

Midway through the second quarter, point guard Shyanne Sellers went down on the court and was immediately upset. Athletic trainers looked at her right knee, and Sellers sat for nearly four minutes. Frese said the senior told her she could go, but said once she was back in she didn’t feel right. She did not play in the second half. Frese said Sellers, a projected WNBA Draft pick, will be looked at by doctors on Tuesday.

McDaniel and Sellers are two of Maryland's top three scorers, leaving Kaylene Smikle to shoulder the load. She scored a team-high 15 points Monday, followed by Christina Dalce’s nine. No other player scored more than six and the Terps’ 27 turnovers were a season high.

“It was extremely painful to be going against a pressing team with limited guard play,” Frese said. “Playing a top-10 team and losing two of your top three scorers is a tough pill to swallow. But we got to move through this quickly.”

There is little time for Maryland to figure it out with Big Ten leaders Ohio State and UCLA looming in the next five days.

Lauren Betts' outsized impact

Lauren Betts doesn’t need gaudy stats to make the biggest impact on the floor. Her ability to patrol the paint gives UCLA immediate advantages, especially when an opponent’s shot isn’t falling early. Baylor’s shot was missing in the first quarter, and the Bears were prone to turning over the ball while passing it around the perimeter.

UCLA scored 17 of the game’s first 19 points with its 6-foot-6 wall stymieing the Bears at every spin and turn. Layups and paint points, which UCLA won 42-20, were difficult to come by for Baylor, and Betts secured a program-record nine blocks.

Betts took advantage of the mismatches with a game-high 24 points, 15 in the second half, in one of her less efficient outings (7-of-17 from the floor and a standard 4-of-9 at the free-throw line). She also added nine rebounds and two assists.

The initial defensive assignment on Betts went to Aaronette Vonleh, Baylor’s 6-3 starting center who faced the UCLA star twice last season while she was at Colorado. Vonleh drew two fouls in the first four minutes and sat the rest of the first. Her impact was felt out of the half with Baylor facing a 37-29 deficit. She drew a quick foul from Betts and altered the center’s shot on the other end, but it was short-lived success as Vonleh fouled out minutes into the fourth.

Betts also owned the matchup against 6-3 junior forward Kyla Abraham, and freshman Kayla Nelms, playing bigger than her 6-1 frame, logged a career-high 17 minutes for Baylor.

“We thought we could neutralize Betts a little bit with Vonleh, but her foul trouble never allowed that to happen,” Baylor head coach Nicki Collen said. “Kyla and Kayla really battled, but ultimately, I think if we get a Vonleh typical game, then that game would have been a close finish, rather than a 15-point game.”

Baylor’s offense goes quiet

The Bears' offense didn’t travel with season lows nearly across the board: 57 points, 27.5 FG percentage, 31.9 EFG percentage and 0.72 points per scoring attempt.

“My challenge to our team this week was to compete with our defense,” UCLA head coach Cori Close said.

There was nowhere to turn for a quick bucket, and the Bears failed to capitalize on Bruins scoring droughts, one of which extended for a 6:26 stretch from the first to second quarters. Baylor cut the deficit from 17-2 to 19-11, and though Collen kept calling for pace, the Bears rushed too much and Betts beat them back in transition every time. The national player of the year contender credited the preseason conditioning and training UCLA has focused on this season.

“When you have someone like Lauren Betts at the front of the rim for most of the game, you rush your shot,” Collen said. “You mishandle the drop pass that you normally catch and lay in because you gotta get it and go up really quickly. A lot of our misses can be attributed to them.”

Darianna Littlepage-Buggs and Vonleh, both highly efficient 50%-plus shooters, have combined to average 27.8 points per game this season. Against UCLA, they were 3-of-13 for 10 points. Vonleh went scoreless in three attempts in 10 minutes. Littlepage-Buggs led Baylor, which kept up with UCLA on the boards, with 10 rebounds.

Yaya Felder came off the bench for a team-high 10 points for Baylor. No Bears shot better than Felder and Nelms, who each were 3-of-8.

Baylor (16-4, 6-1 Big 12) fell behind Kansas State (19-1, 7-0) and TCU (19-1, 7-0) in the battle for the Big 12 regular-season title.

They’re off for the week before playing at TCU on Sunday.

Honoring Martin Luther King Jr.

The event honored the legacy of Coretta Scott King, the wife of Martin Luther King Jr., and aimed to “celebrate female empowerment in sports.” It is the first time their names have been licensed for a sporting event, according to the event's founders.

Texas head coach Vic Schaefer said Friday on a video call it was a “no-brainer” to accept an invitation to the event. He said his players will also receive NIL compensation.

“I talk to my kids all the time about leadership, and that the greatest leaders of all time were servant leaders and that there's pain in leadership,” Schaefer said. “When I think of Dr. King, and reading those letters from the Birmingham jail that I'm still not all the way through, he epitomizes that. This is a guy [who] wasn't scared. He wasn't afraid. He wasn't intimidated to do the right thing and to speak up. And in a time [and] in a day when it wasn't fashionable. And so just to me, it is an honor to be a part of this event on a day that is very special in our world, in our country.”

After the game, he added praise for the bravery of Scott King. Harmon said she and freshman guard Bryanna Preston watched an MLK documentary airing on TV before heading to the arena.

“I think today you saw how much passion we played for that special day for him and his wife,” Harmon said.

A video tribute to the Kings was played before the first game, and the local Carlton Pope and Provenance Music Group sang the national anthem and “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” The West Powelton Steppers and Drum Squad performed at halftime of the first game.

The Bears attended a showing of “Hamilton” and used the trip to build the culture of their program. Collen led the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream, named after MLK’s “I Have a Dream Speech,” before taking over the Baylor program in 2021.

“Any way that we get to honor him with what we do in his example is really, really special,” she said.