Lauren Betts, UCLA Seniors Deliver Bruins First NCAA Women's Basketball Title

A 6-foot-7 center who arrived at UCLA three seasons ago with "zero confidence" walked out of Phoenix's Mortgage Matchup Center on Sunday night as the tournament's Most Outstanding Player and a national champion. Lauren Betts finished with 14 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks as the Bruins dominated South Carolina 79-51 to capture the program's first-ever NCAA women's basketball championship, ending a 48-year wait since the 1978 AIAW title and becoming UCLA's 126th overall championship across all sports.

UCLA, the No. 1 seed that finished 37-1, never trailed in the title game. The Bruins opened a double-digit lead by the end of the first quarter and never looked back. Going into the fourth quarter, UCLA held a commanding 61-32 advantage. Senior Gabriela Jaquez led all scorers with 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting, adding 10 rebounds and five assists. Her brother Jaime, who plays for the Miami Heat, flew in to watch. All five Bruins starters scored in double figures. Gianna Kneepkens added 15 points, while Charlisse Leger-Walker and Kiki Rice each contributed 10.

"All year we've been saying the talent is our floor, but our character will determine our ceiling," coach Cori Close told ESPN's Holly Rowe after the final buzzer. "I'm just so confident in their character, and that's what determined how they played today." Close, in her 15th season leading the program and named Big Ten Coach of the Year, was then interrupted by her mother, Patti, known as "Mother Bruin" around the program, who rushed onto the court mid-interview. "It's immeasurably more than I could ask or imagine," Close said. "It's beyond my wildest dreams. It's meaningful because of the people I've gotten to share it with. It's all about the heart."

Betts, who also won the Naismith Lisa Leslie Award as the nation's top center, anchored the championship two days after a defining moment in the Final Four. Against Texas in the national semifinals, Betts finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds, then came up with a clutch block on Madison Booker with 20 seconds left to preserve a 51-44 win and send UCLA to its first-ever NCAA championship game. Her interior presence limited South Carolina to 7-for-18 shooting when she was the primary defender.

The player who powered that run had taken a long road to get there. "I showed up with zero confidence and wasn't sure if I wanted to really play basketball for that much longer," Betts said. "Coach Cori really believed in me and wanted to see me accomplish everything that I'd ever dreamed of. They wanted me to see myself the way they all see me and I feel like now at this point I can finally, truly do that."

The group Close assembled through a combination of high school commitments and transfer portal players capped off their careers by scoring all the points in the title game. Charlisse Leger-Walker transferred from Washington State, Angela Dugalic from Oregon, and Kneepkens also arrived via the portal. Jaquez, who played all four years at UCLA, had her own emotional reckoning with the moment. "I knew we were going to do it. Coming to UCLA we all set out for a goal, and I imagined this moment. I imagined it so many times, and I am just so, so proud," Jaquez said. "Crying a lot, the confetti, all of the fans being here to support us, my family being here, it just means everything."

The Bruins went 37-1 in 2025-26, closing the season on a 31-game winning streak after their only loss, a November defeat to Texas in a Thanksgiving tournament, which they avenged twice: once in the Big Ten tournament and again in Phoenix. South Carolina, a three-time champion under Dawn Staley (2017, 2022, 2024), never found an answer for what Gamecocks guard Tessa Johnson plainly acknowledged. "She's a very dominant player. She's consistent and effective. It's hard to scout that," Johnson said of Betts.