Inside South Carolina's ugly numbers from NCAA championship game loss to UCLA
South Carolina women's basketball played one of its worst NCAA Tournament games vs UCLA in the national championship game
South Carolina women's basketball suffered its second-largest NCAA Tournament loss in program history in the 2026 national championship game. The No. 1 seed Gamecocks (36-4) lost 79-51 to No.
1 seed UCLA (37-1) on April 5 at Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix. The 28-point loss sits just below the Gamecocks’ 29-point loss to UConn in the Elite Eight of the 2018 NCAA Tournament. The margin is the third-largest ever in any NCAA championship game.
“I think we could score about 70 on any given day,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “… Shots were short. I thought we didn't really do a good job at making extra passes … We took the first shot available.
Sometimes that shot didn't go in. A lot of times that shot didn't go in. ” The 51 points were the fewest South Carolina has ever scored in an NCAA Tournament loss and the second-fewest they’ve scored in any NCAA Tournament game.