UCLA Defeats Texas in Women's Final Four, Advances to Championship Game

For the second consecutive year, Texas left the Final Four having fallen one win short of a national championship game. This time, in a historically ugly semifinal at the Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix, the Longhorns were undone not by a superior opponent alone, but by a crisis of shot selection, 12 turnovers, and a matchup they could never solve: Lauren Betts.

UCLA's 51-44 victory combined with the South Carolina-UConn semifinal to produce 95 combined points, the third-lowest scoring Final Four in history. UCLA coach Cori Close, candid on the ESPN broadcast afterward, offered something between an explanation and an apology. "I think it was more rugby than it was basketball," she said. "I wanted to apologize to all the fans that we couldn't give them a cleaner game, with 23 turnovers."

That UCLA committed 23 turnovers and still won by seven tells the Texas story completely. The Longhorns shot 20-of-65 from the field, a staggering 31 percent, and got nearly nothing from their most dangerous weapon. Madison Booker, who averaged 19.3 points per game during the regular season and more than 22 throughout the tournament, went 3-of-23 from the field for six points, a season low. None of Texas' starters reached double figures. Senior center Kyla Oldacre, coming off the bench, led the Longhorns with 11 points and seven rebounds.

The decisive stretch came at the start of the fourth quarter. UCLA, clinging to a three-point lead through a grinding third period, opened the final frame with a 7-0 run in 90 seconds: Kiki Rice hit a three-pointer, Gabriela Jaquez converted a fastbreak layup, and suddenly the Bruins held a double-digit cushion at 38-28. Texas answered with a 12-2 run that made it a one-possession game at 47-44 with 55.8 seconds left, but with 18 seconds to play and UCLA up three, Betts swatted Booker's layup attempt at the rim to seal it.

Betts finished with 16 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, and three blocks, going 7-of-10 from the field. She had entered the game with a score to settle: in the teams' only previous meeting, a 76-65 Texas win at the Players Era Championship on Nov. 26, Betts managed just eight points on eight shots while Texas led by 20 at halftime. UCLA's 23 turnovers in Phoenix mirrored the 20 that Texas had forced in Las Vegas. The difference this time was Betts and a Bruin defense that held firm where it mattered most.

Rice added 11 points, including four key free throws in the closing minutes, while Gianna Kneepkens and Jaquez each finished with 10. UCLA shot 41 percent from the field and 92 percent from the line (11-of-12), metrics that separated them when the margins collapsed.

For Texas and coach Vic Schaefer, the loss closes a season that finished 35-4 and included a dominant 36-point Elite Eight rout of Michigan but ends in the same place as 2025: a Final Four exit. The program faces immediate roster questions. Graduate guard Rori Harmon, the school's all-time leader in assists and steals, who recorded four steals against UCLA, is expected to depart. Oldacre, the 6-foot-6 senior center, is also gone. Schaefer's most pressing portal priority is a veteran point guard to replace Harmon's 241 assists, with the portal opening April 6.

Booker returns for her junior season, and the incoming recruiting class ranked No. 1 nationally by CBS Sports, led by five-star forward Brihanna Crittendon and top-10 wing Addison Bjorn, gives the Longhorns significant ammunition to reload. The ceiling remains high; getting through a Final Four requires more than talent.

UCLA, now 36-1, faces South Carolina in the national championship game on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC, the program's first title game appearance in its history. The Bruins survived a rematch against the only team to beat them this season by doing what champions do in March: defending at an elite level even when their offense sputtered, making critical shots when leads shrank, and centering everything on a player whose block in the final 20 seconds rendered every other statistic secondary.