UCLA Wins its First NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship, Dominating South Carolina Gamecocks
The UCLA women’s basketball team has scored the school’s first-ever women’s NCAA championship title, dominating the South Carolina Gamecocks 79-51 in a hard-fought Easter Sunday game that capped several years of momentum for the Bruin squad that features superstar player Lauren Betts. Betts, the team’s 6’7″ center, and guard Kiki Rice led the Bruins to overwhelm the Gamecocks throughout the game. Going into the fourth quarter, UCLA had a 29-point (61-32) lead over the Gamecocks, a formidable team who have earned three championship titles in the past 10 years (2017, 2022 and 2024) under the leadership of respected coach Dawn Staley.
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In the 2025-26 season, UCLA seniors Betts, Rice and others played with an intensity that demonstrated the team’s hunger to make UCLA history. As Sunday’s game ended without any suspense given UCLA’s lead, the seniors on the team took a final emotional bow on the court. Cori Close, in her 15th season as UCLA women’s basketball coach, has seen her profile rise along with the program’s fortunes.
Close is known for her bluntness and passion that has endeared her to fans and to her players. On April 3, after UCLA defeated University of Texas in the Final Four, Close apologized to the fans in an ESPN interview about how the two teams brawled over each point. “It wasn’t the sport I thought I was coaching,” Close said.
“I think it was more rugby than it was basketball. I wanted to apologize to all the fans that we couldn’t give them a cleaner game, with 23 turnovers. ” But Close has also been effusive about how special the UCLA squad of the past few years has been given the leadership of talented players such as Betts, Rice, Gabriela Jaquez and Charlisse Leger-Walker.