UCLA steamrolls South Carolina 79-51 for first-ever NCAA women's national title
The UCLA women’s basketball team of destiny left no doubt Sunday, using the collective firepower of a group of seniors playing in the final collegiate game of their careers to overwhelm South Carolina.
Cue the music, start the dance party. The Bruins are bringing the national championship home to Westwood.
UCLA rolled past a South Carolina program that has been among the sport’s elite in recent years, going wire to wire in a 79-51 victory at Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix to secure the first-ever NCAA title in school history.
The victory marks UCLA’s second women’s basketball national championship overall and the first since the 1978 AIAW title captured before the sport’s NCAA era. For the school, it is NCAA national team championship No. 126 overall.
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The Bruins (37-1) took a resounding 29-point lead into the final quarter, and all that was left to do was wait for the clock to hit zeros and set off the coronation for the new queens of the hardwood. The 28-point margin of victory was five off from tying the largest in national championship game history.
UCLA senior guard Gabriela Jaquez, who spent all four years with the program, led a balanced attack with a terrific all-around effort. She finished with 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting to go with 10 rebounds and five assists. Jaquez let out a scream of joy after her 3-pointer with 2:55 left capped her afternoon before exiting three seconds later to a rousing ovation and UCLA up 79-45.
The Bruins put all five starters in double figures and got a second double-double from All-American center Lauren Betts, who had 14 points and 11 rebounds to go with two blocked shots. Betts was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
Betts was joined on the all-tournament team by teammates Jaquez and guard Kiki Rice and South Carolina players Tessa Johnson and Ta’Niya Latson.
The team mostly dominated its way into UCLA lore and punctuated its place as the greatest in program history. The Bruins won a program-record 31 consecutive games en route to back-to-back Final Four appearances and the elusive modern-era title.
The Gamecocks (36-4), in their third straight title game appearance, were denied a second title in three years and their quest for a fourth overall. Johnson had 14 points, but none of her teammates cracked double figures.
UCLA raced out to an early 13-4 by making five of its first eight shots before the first break in action and had an 11-point lead through one quarter. The Bruins closed the quarter on an 8-0 run capped by a 3-pointer from Rice as time expired.
South Carolina started 2 of 10 from the field and trailed by as any as 15 in the first half before finding brief success with full-court defensive pressure. UCLA took a 36-23 lead into halftime and never let up, allowing just nine third-quarter points.
For Bruins head coach Cori Close, a proud disciple and friend to the family of legendary UCLA men’s basketball coach John Wooden, she will now get to raise her own banner to the Pauley Pavilion rafters next to the 10 delivered by the Wizard of Westwood.