2026 NCAA Women's Final Four: UCLA defeats Texas, advances to national championship

On Friday, 1-seed UCLA defeated 1-seed Texas 51-44 in the Final Four to secure its first national championship appearance in program history. The Bruins will square off against South Carolina on Sunday in the national championship.

In UCLA’s win Friday, the Bruins jumped out to an early lead, taking a 14-6 lead into the second quarter. However, UCLA lost its momentum in the second and third quarters, and only possessed a three-point lead ahead of the final frame.

With their backs against the wall, the Bruins responded, outscoring the Longhorns 20-16 in the fourth quarter. UCLA star center Lauren Betts was spectacular, tallying 16 points and 11 rebounds while shooting an efficient 7-10 from the field.

Of course, Betts wasn’t the Bruins’ only standout. Senior guard Kiki Rice scored 11 points, while sinking all six of her free-throws, including several clutch attempts down the stretch.

Kyla Oldacre was the lone Texas player who scored double figures. She notched 11 points and seven rebounds against UCLA.

Notably, Texas standout Madison Booker only scored six points on poor 3-23 shooting from the floor. After the game, UCLA head coach Cori Close discussed how the Bruins slowed down the All-SEC forward.

“It was the focus of our group to just make her catches more uncomfortable,” Close said. “When she can catch the ball at like 12 feet, that’s like a layup for her. We wanted her catches to happen at 17 feet, and when we switched, we wanted to switch out to make her get off balance a little bit.

“… Madison Booker is an incredible player. I watched her with USA basketball, and obviously through her career at Texas. She’s spectacular, and it really did take a team effort, but I thought they executed the game plan on that end to make those catches tougher.”

In fairness, Booker wasn’t the only player who had a poor shooting night. UCLA shot 41% from the floor, while Texas connected on only 31% of its field-goal attempts. The Bruins also committed 23 turnovers. Nonetheless, they’re the ones who are still dancing and Close couldn’t be happier.

“Wow that there’s just 40 minutes left, man, we got to make the most of them,” Close said. “We’ve just been saying, ‘1-0.’ What does it look like each particular game to be the tougher team, and that’ll look different against South Carolina. But, we’re just happy to have 40 more.”

UCLA and South Carolina will square off at 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday. The game will air live on ABC.