To be the best, you need to beat the best, and the UCLA Bruins women’s basketball team did that with an exclamation point on Sunday to climb the mountaintop.
They (37-1) dismantled South Carolina 79-51 in the 2026 NCAA National Championship Game to earn their first title since joining in 1981.
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The emphatic victory capped off a dominant run through March Madness for the Bruins, led by 6-foot-7 senior center Lauren Betts, who led the team in scoring in four of their six games. She had 14 points and 11 rebounds during Sunday’s historic win.
UCLA put its foot on the gas early, surviving an injury scare to Betts, who received treatment on the bench after appearing to be hit in the throat. It finished the first quarter on an 8-0 run to take a 21-10 lead into the second.
The Gamecocks held their own in the second, but were still outscored 15-13 as the Bruins took a 36-23 lead at the half.
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The Bruins, however, put the game – and the trophy – virtually out of reach in the third quarter by outscoring the Gamecocks by 16.
UCLA senior Gabriela Jaquez led all scorers with 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting, tacking on 10 rebounds to give her a national championship game double-double.
South Carolina’s (36-4) season ended with a disappointing flop in the championship game. Dawn Staley’s squad finishes as the runner-up for the second-straight year after winning its third title in program history in the 2023-2024 season.
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UCLA’s first-ever NCAA title comes after what’s been a steady build-up for head coach Cori Close in her 15 seasons at the helm. Despite missing the NCAA Tournament in three of her first four years, she quickly turned UCLA into a perennial postseason team, making it in nine of the next 10 seasons.
Last season, the Bruins advanced to their first Final Four, where they fell to eventual champion Connecticut. They returned four of five starters for 2025-2026, adding senior Utah-transfer Gianna Kneepkins to the roster and moving senior Angela Dugalic to the primary option off the bench.