UCLA Bruins Crush South Carolina 79-51 to Claim First Women's NCAA Title

The UCLA Bruins needed only three quarters to put away the South Carolina Gamecocks on Easter Sunday, building a 29-point lead before coasting to a 79-51 victory at the Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix to claim the program's first NCAA women's basketball championship.

The 28-point final margin was the third-largest in women's national championship game history, a fitting capstone to a 2026 tournament defined by blowouts: the average margin of victory through the first 64 games was 20.8 points, with 26 contests decided by at least 20.

Senior guard Gabriela Jaquez led all scorers with 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists, becoming just the fifth player in history to post a 20-point, 10-rebound, 5-assist line in a national title game, joining Sarah Strong, Breanna Stewart, Chamique Holdsclaw, and Dawn Staley. "I knew we were going to do it," Jaquez said after the final buzzer. "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." In the stands to witness her moment was her brother Jaime Jaquez Jr., an NBA forward for the Miami Heat.

Senior center Lauren Betts, the Big Ten's Player and Defensive Player of the Year, added 14 points, 11 rebounds, and 2 blocks. South Carolina shot just 7-of-18 from the field when Betts was the primary defender, and the Gamecocks finished the game at 18-of-62 (29%) overall, converting only 2-of-15 from three-point range and committing 14 turnovers. UCLA outrebounded South Carolina 49-37.

The third quarter was where the game was decided beyond any doubt. The Bruins outscored the Gamecocks by 16 in the period, the largest single-quarter margin in women's title-game history, stretching a 36-23 halftime advantage into a 61-32 lead heading into the fourth. UCLA had jumped ahead 21-10 after the first quarter and never trailed. All five starters finished in double figures: Gianna Kneepkens added 15 points on 3-of-7 shooting from three, while Charlisse Leger-Walker and Kiki Rice each contributed 10.

Head coach Cori Close, in her 15th season at UCLA and named the Big Ten Coach of the Year, was visibly emotional. "It's immeasurably more than I could ask or imagine," she said. "It's beyond my wildest dreams."

The title is UCLA's first NCAA championship in women's basketball; the program's only prior national crown came at the 1978 AIAW championship. With the win, UCLA became the sixth school in NCAA history to hold both men's and women's basketball titles, joining a men's program that already claims a record 11 national championships. The victory also made UCLA just the second Big Ten women's team to win a national championship and marked the conference's first title in either men's or women's basketball since Michigan State's men's program won in 2000. The win extended the Bruins' winning streak to 31 games, the longest in program history, capping a 37-1 season whose only blemish was a November loss to Texas in a Thanksgiving tournament.

The road to Phoenix carried its own drama. UCLA edged Texas 51-44 in a Final Four defensive grind, while South Carolina ended UConn's 54-game winning streak with a 62-48 victory to reach the final. The all-No.-1-seed matchup completed the first Final Four since 1996 to feature identical semifinalists in back-to-back years. For South Carolina and coach Dawn Staley, Sunday's defeat was the program's second consecutive blowout loss in the national championship game.

UCLA's dominance stretched well beyond Sunday night. The Bruins held both Final Four opponents 35 points below their season scoring averages, a standard of defensive excellence that made the program's first championship feel less like a breakthrough than the logical conclusion of a season built for exactly this moment.