PHOENIX – The No. 1-seed UCLA women's basketball team defeated No. 1-seed South Carolina, 79-51, to win its first-ever NCAA Championship on Sunday afternoon before a capacity crowd at Mortgage Matchup Center.
Playing at the NCAA Final Four for the second consecutive season, the Bruins (37-1) never trailed in Sunday's championship showdown against South Carolina (36-4).
Senior Gabriela Jaquez scored a team-leading 21 points, connecting on 8 of 14 shots and hitting 2 of 4 attempts from 3-point distance. In all, five Bruins scored in double figures. Gianna Kneepkens totaled 15 points, connecting on 3 of 7 shots from behind the 3-point arc. Lauren Betts had 14 points and a team-high 11 rebounds, while Charlisse Leger-Walker and Kiki Rice each scored 10 points.
Under the leadership of Cori Close, in her 15th season as The Michael Price Family UCLA Women's Head Basketball Coach, UCLA earned its second women's basketball national title. The Bruins won the 1978 national title in the AIAW (Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women), before the NCAA took over the women's basketball championship in 1982.
The Bruins' 28-point victory on Sunday helped the women's basketball program secure its second national title and its first NCAA women's basketball title.
In addition, UCLA's win against South Carolina helped the university to secure its 126th NCAA team championship, the athletic department's second NCAA title in the 2025-26 academic year (also, men's water polo on Dec. 7, 2025). The Bruins rank No. 2 in the nation, among all NCAA Division I programs, with 126 NCAA team titles.
"This has been a calling, not a job," Coach Close said in the postgame press conference on Sunday afternoon. "I've been saying it all day, but I don't even know how else to say it – it's immeasurably more than I could ask or imagine. I'm really grateful. It's not about me. It's about watching these incredible young women be dream chasers, to watch them grow in ways that they will remember and it will stick with them for the rest of their lives. It's about their work and their habits yielding. We say this, we want to recruit courageous – gets me choked up. There were a lot of times we wondered if it could be true. I said I wanted to find uncommon, courageous women that were willing to make uncommon choices that maybe possibly could yield an uncommon result, and today it did."
The Bruins outscored South Carolina in the third quarter, 25-9, to secure control of the championship contest. UCLA's smothering defense forced eight turnovers by South Carolina in the third quarter as the Bruins cruised to the 28-point win. The Bruins limited South Carolina to just 3-of-14 shooting from the field in that third quarter.
UCLA built its cushion up to 19 points, at 44-25, after an offensive rebound by Lauren Betts and a made free throw by Angela Dugalic with 7:05 to play in the third quarter.
A layup by Betts with 6:04 remaining in the period put UCLA on top, 46-26, and a block by Betts and ensuing rebound by Rice led to a fast-break layup by Jaquez with 5:44 remaining. That basket put UCLA ahead, 48-26, and prompted the Gamecocks to call a timeout as the Bruins' lead swelled to 22 points.
The Bruins led by as many as 15 points at multiple instances midway through the second quarter. UCLA pushed its advantage, prior to halftime, up to 32-17 at the 4:52 mark and back to 15 points, at 36-21, with 50 seconds left before the intermission.
"I think it starts with that perimeter pressure," Lauren Betts said. "Our guards did a really good job of just making it difficult for them. Once we get stops, they're just not able to do what they want to do. I think that's what we want to get in transition, able to score. I think our guards did a really good job of just taking away the point guard's decision-making. For me, my job is to just protect the rim. Whatever they told me to do today in the scout, whether it's guard them out there, just protect the paint, I was going to do what I got to do."
UCLA used a balanced scoring attack in the opening two quarters. Kneepkens and Jaquez led the Bruins with seven points each, while Betts had six points and seven rebounds. The Bruins shot nearly 43 percent in the two periods, knocking down 15 of 35 shots.
South Carolina shot 9-or-35 in the game's first two periods (25.7 percent) and was just 1-for-8 from beyond the 3-point arc. Tessa Johnson had 10 of South Carolina's 21 points, prior to halftime.
Lauren Betts won the tip and established paint presence immediately, posting up for UCLA's first score of the game. Leger-Walker wanted in on the fun with a jumper before Lauren Betts caught a lob for Jaquez's second assist of the game.
Jaquez tracked down a missed layup and put it back up through contact for an and-one, putting UCLA up five. Dugalic went to work on the low post, hitting a fading jumper on the block for her first points of the game. Jaquez pushed the pace and got to the line again. The senior from Camarillo, Calif., knocked down both.
Freshman Lena Bilic tracked down an offensive rebound that found its way back into Leger-Walker's hands in the corner. The Kiwi guard splashed the 3-pointer on her second attempt of the possession. Dugalic got another bucket before Rice knocked down a buzzer-beating side-stepping triple.
Jaquez lobbed another ball into the post to start quarter two, finding Dugalic on the block for a layup. Gianna Kneepkens banked in a triple before the Dugalic-Jaquez connection reversed to a layup for the guard. Kneepkens attacked off a Dugalic screen and got to the short corner for a one-legged jumper.
Lauren Betts knocked down a midrange jump shot after being left alone above the free throw line. That shot helped to push UCLA's lead to 15 before the media timeout in the second quarter.
The Gamecocks made a small run out of the break, but Rice quelled the surge. She got downhill for a left-handed layup to push UCLA's lead back to 13 points. Kneepkens made her way into the paint, hit the brakes, and knocked down a mid-range shot for UCLA's final basket of the first half.
The Bruins led South Carolina, 36-23, at the midgame intermission.
Jaquez got Lauren Betts UCLA's first basket of the second half on a pick-and-roll; the center finished a layup at the rim. Jaquez then tracked down an offensive rebound and battled her way to a basket in the paint. Rice stole a ball and kicked it right to Leger-Walker who nailed a 3-pointer in front of UCLA's bench.
Jaquez stayed active and got a jump ball that turned into a lob to Lauren Betts. The center was the first to get into double digits as UCLA's lead ballooned to 20. Betts swatted a shot that fell into Rice's hands; the point guard pushed it to Jaquez on the break for another layup in transition.
UCLA forced a five-second violation out of the media timeout in the third, continuing the Bruins' stifling defense. Center Lauren Betts launched a pass across court to find Jaquez, who sunk her first 3-pointer in three attempts.
Freshman Sienna Betts battled for a massive offensive rebound that she kicked out. The Bruins swung it to Kneepkens who drilled her second 3-pointer of the game to get into double figures. Leger-Walker was next in double digits with a layup; the Kiwi guard was the fourth Bruin to have 10 or more points before the fourth quarter.
UCLA headed into the final frame with a 61-32 lead.
Jaquez stripped the Gamecocks and got a free pair of points in transition before Kneepkens added two points from the free throw line.
Rice became the fifth starter in double figures by getting to the rack and dropping in a layup. The seniors kept pouring it on out of the media timeout in the fourth, as Dugalic, Jaquez and Betts all got buckets to push UCLA's lead to 35 points.
UCLA held a 28-point lead when the final buzzer sounded, marking the Bruins' first-ever NCAA championship victory. The Bruins closed their 2025-26 season with a 37-1 overall record and a perfect 18-0 mark in Big Ten play.
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