UCLA Rout South Carolina 79-51 for First NCAA Women's Title
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- UCLA beat South Carolina 79-51 on Sunday in Phoenix to claim its first NCAA women's basketball championship, with the 28-point margin ranking as the third largest in a Division I women's title game.
- Lauren Betts earned Final Four Most Outstanding Player honors with 14 points and 11 rebounds, anchoring a 31st consecutive win that never saw the Bruins trail.
- Cori Close, in her 15th season as UCLA's head coach, became the longest-tenured coach at a single school to win a long-awaited first NCAA championship, crediting lessons from the late John Wooden, whom she met as a 22-year-old UCLA assistant.
- Gabriela Jaquez led five UCLA double-figure scorers with 21 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, and was joined by her brother Jaime Jaquez Jr. of the Miami Heat, who flew in to watch her win the title.
- South Carolina shot 29% from the field — including a 9-of-35 first half, its worst shooting half since December 2022 — as its top three players (Joyce Edwards, Ta'Niya Latson, Raven Johnson) combined for 15 points on 5-of-22 shooting.
- The Gamecocks became the first team to lose consecutive national championship games by 15 or more points, per the source, after falling to UCLA by 28 a year after losing the 2025 final by a wide margin.
- UCLA's previous women's national title came in 1978 in the AIAW, led by Ann Meyers Drysdale and Denise Curry — both of whom were in attendance Sunday to see the Bruins finally claim the NCAA-era crown.
Why it matters: UCLA's 79-51 rout ended a 47-year championship drought for one of college sports' most storied programs and crowned Cori Close, who had been denied in 15 seasons. South Carolina, the defending champions, became the first team to lose consecutive title games by 15+ points and managed just 29% shooting — a result that signals a power shift in women's college basketball heading into next season.
