For 48 years, UCLA women's basketball chased a championship that never came. On Easter Sunday night in Phoenix, they stopped chasing and started celebrating. The Bruins demolished South Carolina 79-51 at Mortgage Matchup Center to win the first NCAA women's basketball national championship in school history — a 28-point rout that wasn't as close as the final margin suggested.
It was a statement game from start to finish. UCLA outrebounded South Carolina 29-17 in the first half alone. The Gamecocks — who came in as a co-number-one seed and had won three consecutive national championships from 2022 through 2024 — shot just 26 percent in the first half, going 1-for-8 from three. By the time the second half was halfway done, the score read 67-38. The trophy was already Westwood's.
The Numbers
UCLA finished the season 37-1 — the best record in program history. Their only loss came in the regular season. Every starter scored in double figures in the championship game.
Gabriela Jaquez led all scorers with 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting. She added 10 rebounds for a double-double. Lauren Betts had 14 points, 11 rebounds, and 4 blocks — the kind of performance that wins awards, and it did: Betts was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. She also received the Naismith Lisa Leslie Award, given annually to the nation's best collegiate center.
Elina Aarnisalo contributed 13 points and 4 assists. All five starters were in double digits by game's end. South Carolina's best performer was Te-Hina Paopao with 18 points. Tessa Johnson added 14 off the bench. But it was too little, too late, and too steep a hill.
The Dynasty That Was Slain
South Carolina entered the 2026 championship game as arguably the most dominant program in the modern era of women's college basketball. Under head coach Dawn Staley — herself a Hall of Famer as a player — the Gamecocks had won the national championship in 2017, 2022, 2024, and nearly every year in between had been a deep tournament run. Staley was widely considered the best coach in the women's game.
Both teams arrived in Phoenix with a 36-win regular season behind them, according to pregame reports. South Carolina had knocked out most of the bracket's other contenders on the way to Phoenix. The Gamecocks were a slight favorite entering the title game in many projections.
UCLA dismantled them methodically. By halftime, South Carolina trailed 36-23. The Bruins dominated the paint throughout — outrebounding the Gamecocks by double digits in both halves — and denied South Carolina the physical inside game that had defined the Gamecocks' dominance for years. Betts in particular was a wall. South Carolina's frontcourt had no answer for her length, timing, and positioning.
Cori Close and 14 Years of Waiting
Cori Close has been head coach of UCLA women's basketball since 2011. She recruited this senior class, built this program, and made the promise that a national championship was within reach. On Sunday, she made good on it.
Close was named the Big Ten Coach of the Year for the 2025-26 season. She is, according to The Athletic, the first coach to win their first national championship since Dawn Staley herself led South Carolina to its inaugural title in 2017. There is a symmetry there that is difficult to miss: the student (in a spiritual sense) finally besting the master.
Close made a critical decision at last year's Final Four — after the Bruins reached their first-ever Final Four and lost — to keep her senior class together for one more run. Gabriela Jaquez, Lauren Betts, and the rest of the core group returned instead of pursuing professional opportunities. That decision paid off Sunday night in Phoenix.
Gabriela Jaquez: A Family Affair
Gabriela Jaquez's 21-point performance was the story of the game's first half and its conclusion. She is the sister of Miami Heat guard Jaime Jaquez Jr., who played his own storied career at UCLA before turning professional. On Sunday, Jaime was in the stands. The NBC broadcast showed the Jaquez family celebrating together after the final buzzer.
Gabriela Jaquez played with the poise of someone who had been waiting for this moment since childhood. She shot efficiently, attacked the basket consistently, and made South Carolina pay whenever they doubled Betts in the post. Her double-double — 21 points, 10 rebounds — was the performance of a senior playing her last college game and refusing to waste it.
Lauren Betts: The Player of the Tournament
Before Sunday's championship game, there had been a brief scare: Lauren Betts was briefly sidelined in the first quarter with what appeared to be a respiratory issue. UCLA's training staff administered an inhaler and evaluated her on the bench. She returned to start the second quarter, with the Bruins already leading 36-23 at halftime.
Whatever the issue was, it did not slow Betts down. She finished with 14 points, 11 rebounds, and 4 blocks. Over the course of the entire tournament, she was the most dominant interior presence in the bracket — controlling the paint, protecting the rim, and creating second-chance opportunities for her teammates on both ends. The Most Outstanding Player award was not a close call.
Betts also received the Naismith Lisa Leslie Award — given annually to the nation's top collegiate center — during the tournament. She leaves UCLA as one of the best centers in the program's history and a likely top pick in the upcoming WNBA Draft.
What 37-1 Means
A 37-1 record across an entire college basketball season is extraordinary. It means UCLA won nearly every game they played, all season long, against every level of competition, and then ran through the toughest bracket in the women's game to claim the title on the final night.
The Bruins' lone loss — in the regular season — came before the Big Ten tournament, which they also won. They entered the NCAA Tournament as a co-number-one seed alongside South Carolina. They exited as the only team standing.
UCLA's 1978 AIAW championship is the only previous national title in the program's women's basketball history. The AIAW — the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women — was the predecessor governing body to the NCAA for women's sports. Sunday's victory is the program's first under the NCAA banner, and the first national championship in the sport since women's basketball was formally brought under NCAA governance in 1982.
What Comes Next
The 2026 WNBA Draft will almost certainly feature Lauren Betts as a top selection. Gabriela Jaquez will also be evaluated by WNBA teams following her performance this season.
For South Carolina and Dawn Staley, the loss ends a championship run that defined an era of women's college basketball. They will reload. They always do. But for one night in Phoenix, UCLA broke through — and every Bruin who ever watched this program fall short now has a championship to claim.
UCLA women's basketball: 37-1. National champions. First in program history.