From heartbreak to history: UCLA completes redemption with NCAA title
UCLA's senior core had one more crack at an elusive NCAA national championship. One last dance.
PHOENIX — UCLA women's basketball's senior core had one more crack at an elusive NCAA national championship. One last dance, if you will. After the Bruins were knocked out of the 2025 Final Four in blowout fashion, Lauren Betts, Kiki Rice, Gabriela Jaquez, Charlisse Leger-Walker and Angela Dugalic opted to return to UCLA to run it back one final time.
UCLA didn’t let the moment pass and dismantled South Carolina 79-51 to win the program’s first NCAA national championship in Phoenix on Sunday, April 5. "Today was just a fantastic display of our resilience, intensity that we came out. Just our will to win," said senior guard Kiki Rice, who finished with 10 points in the win.
"We had a feeling this was our time, this was our year "There's no better way that we could hope to end our career. " UCLA grinded out some ugly NCAA tournament wins in their march to the program’s first national championship appearance. There was the Bruins’ comeback Elite 8 win over Duke or UCLA’s 51-44 slugfest against Texas.
But UCLA delivered a complete 40 minutes of Bruins' basketball when it mattered most. UCLA’s seven seniors — including the team’s entire starting lineup — would not be denied. UCLA head coach Cori Close said she pulled Betts aside ahead of tipoff to tell her, "No matter what happens today, I'll always be more proud of who she's become and who she's impacted than any net will ever cut down.
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