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Andrea Adelson
Multiple Authors
PHOENIX — This one was for coach Cori Close and Lauren Betts and all the current players wearing UCLA on their jerseys.
But it was also for Ann Meyers Drysdale and Denise Curry and John Wooden, and every Bruin who poured effort into what would become the first NCAA championship in UCLA women’s basketball history.
The Bruins beat South Carolina 79-51 on Sunday in the national title game, and they did it the same way they have won all season — with a dominating inside presence, an unselfish offensive approach and a suffocating defense that handed the Gamecocks their second-worst loss in NCAA tournament history.
The 28-point margin of victory was the third largest in a Division I women’s championship final.
“It’s immeasurably more than I could ask or imagine,” Close said. “It’s beyond my wildest dreams.”
UCLA never trailed, opening a double-digit lead at the end of the first quarter en route to its 31st straight win to make history. Betts was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player after the game.
In her 15th season at the helm, Close pulled off what many didn’t believe was possible at one of the most storied basketball programs in the country. UCLA last won a national title in women’s basketball in 1978 in the AIAW, when Meyers Drysdale and Curry led the way. Wooden won 10 titles with the men’s team and set a standard that other coaches on the Los Angeles campus wanted to follow.
Indeed, as a 22-year-old assistant at UCLA, Close began what would become a deep relationship with Wooden. She became the head coach at UCLA the year after Wooden died, and she credits him to this day for helping her become the coach she is now.
“I remember thinking to myself, ‘Oh my gosh, I don’t want to let him down,'” Close said, tearing up as she spoke. “The biggest way I can pay it forward is to live in a way and coach in a way and teach in a way that pays it forward what he did for me.”
With all those lessons, Close guided a team on a mission Sunday — to avenge a poor Final Four appearance a year ago. This senior-laden group was determined to be the first team to win that elusive NCAA championship.
With Meyers Drysdale in attendance, UCLA asserted its game plan from the opening tip, immediately feeding Betts inside. Close had talked about her team being too reactive last year in a double-digit national semifinal loss. It was the opposite in the national title game this year.
“I really did expect us to win today,” Close said. “I thought about it several times. I’m like, ‘We’re going to win.’ I felt very peaceful all day. It wasn’t about whether or not we got the W. I wanted us to be able to play our best when our best was needed. We delivered on that.”
The Bruins were aggressive, using their size to get into the paint while altering shot after shot on defense.
“The confidence we came out with, we just knew we were going to win,” Betts said.
Five UCLA players finished in double figures. Betts had 14 points and 11 rebounds, but it was UCLA senior Gabriela Jaquez who was perhaps most impactful — as she not only found open shots but also fed her teammates and got inside to grab one rebound after another.
Jaquez, who has played her entire college career at UCLA, had 21 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in a performance that will not soon be forgotten. For the player who grew up dreaming of playing at UCLA, with a big brother, Jaime Jr., who competed for a national title with the men’s team in 2021, the championship was especially meaningful. All the more so with Jaime, who now plays for the NBA’s Miami Heat, taking a flight to join their parents, younger brother and other family members in Phoenix.
“My dream was to be at UCLA,” Gabriela Jaquez said. “It brought tears to my eyes when Coach Cori offered me. We were determined, the core group, to do something UCLA hadn’t done before in the NCAA era. That was important for us. We always believed. We always believed. Job is finished.”
At the end of the first half, UCLA had the rebounding advantage and outscored South Carolina in the paint 20-12. Six UCLA players — all seniors — scored in the first half, each with at least two field goals. South Carolina changed its defensive approach and started pressing, but UCLA figured that out, too, and had a 36-23 advantage at the break.
South Carolina, meanwhile, shot 9-of-35 — Joyce Edwards was 1-of-6 with two points. It was the Gamecocks’ worst field goal percentage in any half of any game since December 2022, when they shot 26% in the first half against South Dakota State. They ended this game shooting 29%.
Their three best players — Edwards, Ta’Niya Latson and Raven Johnson — finished with a combined 15 points on 5-of-22 shooting. South Carolina became the first team to lose consecutive national championship game appearances by at least 15 points each.
“We got whooped. Not beat. We got whooped,” Johnson said.
UCLA opened the second half on a 12-3 run, and the rout to a championship was on. The Bruins became the eighth team in the past 30 years to win their debut national championship, while Close became the longest-tenured head coach at a single school to win a long-awaited first NCAA championship.
“I’ve been here six years, and in the conversations that we’ve had about what it’s going to take, she’s always believed that this would be the outcome, if the work and the focus and the team and the right pieces came together, and it did with this team,” UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond said.
After cutting down the nets, Betts and Close made their way into the stands, hugging former players, family members, UCLA staffers and others who helped the Bruins reach this moment. Betts and former teammates Camryn Brown and Izzy Anstey hugged and cried.
Close, always eager to put the spotlight on others instead of herself, has credited everyone — from the 1978 team to Wooden to all the players and assistants along the way. As she finished up giving out hugs, Close turned to the UCLA group still in their seats, raised her arms and said, “We did it!”
