PHOENIX — Lauren Betts turned to the crowd, her hands on her head, and eyes met with the UCLA family section. She mouthed one phrase twice before she and her teammates rushed the floor.
“We did it.”
With a 30-point lead by the end of the third quarter, much of the end of Sunday’s NCAA championship victory was a celebration of what UCLA had built en route to its 79-51 victory over South Carolina.
By the final buzzer, it was a full-blown party.
UCLA’s Kiki Rice, right, drives around South Carolina’s Raven Johnson during the first half of the NCAA national title game on Sunday.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
“It’s truly indescribable,” UCLA coach Cori Close said while holding the national title trophy on the floor after the game. “The loyalty, the steadfast spirit, their character that they’ve chosen day in and day out. Like I am just so humbled that they’ve chosen to commit to our mission. So thank you to our alumni, our fans, the families of our players, our great university. This is meaningful because of the village we get to share it with.”
The Bruins’ first NCAA championship was a romp from start to finish, an inverse of their tournament experience a year ago. Last season, UCLA’s 34-point loss to Connecticut in the semifinal became the worst loss in tournament history.
UCLA won an AIAW title in 1978 against Maryland before women’s basketball was an NCAA sport.
This season, there was no doubt UCLA was ready for the moment and it ensured it could reverse the history books.
UCLA’s Lauren Betts shoots over South Carolina’s Maryam Dauda in the first half of the NCAA national championship game Sunday.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
“Well we’ve said all year that our selflessness and our work ethic would be the things that fuel us,” Close said. “And it’s one thing to say those things in the summer, it’s a whole other thing to follow through with those things sacrificially when it’s hard. And all of those things, our commitments not our feelings, led us to our destiny.”
It was perhaps the most UCLA performance the Bruins could have had. In their final collegiate games, Betts (14 points, 11 rebounds) and Gabriela Jaquez (21 points, 10 rebounds) earned double-doubles and all five starters scored in double digits. They dominated the boards (49-36), played stellar defense and most important, didn’t turn the ball over often.
After the Bruins held Texas to a season-low 44 points in Friday’s semifinal, they held the Gamecocks to 51, also their lowest total all season.
UCLA’s Gabriela Jaquez celebrates after scoring while being fouled during the first quarter Sunday against South Carolina.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
“This is literally so incredible,” UCLA senior Kiki Rice said. “This is everything that we came here to do. And I’m so proud of every single person.”
The Bruins jumped out early while South Carolina struggled with the Bruins’ size and went three for 18 from the floor. Rice (10 points, six rebounds, five assists) hit a buzzer-beating three-pointer to end the opening quarter with the Bruins holding on to a 21-10 lead.
Near the end of the first, Betts came back to the bench coughing and sputtering, seemingly unable to clear her throat. At the start of the second quarter, she was at the end of the UCLA bench and used an inhaler before returning to the game.
UCLA’s suffocating defense held the Gamecocks to 25.7% shooting in the first half. Unlike Friday’s win over Texas, the Bruins’ offense recovered from a one-for-10 stretch far earlier, and UCLA led 36-23 at the half.
Highlights from UCLA’s win over South Carolina in the NCAA women’s basketball national championship game.
The Bruins outscored the Gamecocks 25-9 during the third quarter to earn a 61-32 lead off a 13-0 run. It was the largest lead ever for a team going into the fourth quarter of an NCAA championship game.
South Carolina shot a season-worst 18 for 62 from the floor and two for 15 from three-point range.
UCLA’s Rice, Betts, Jaquez, Gianna Kneepkens, Angela Dugalic and Charlisse Leger-Walker have all exhausted their college eligibility and will go out on top as champions.
“It’s the prep, it’s the work, it’s the confidence that we have because of all the work we do in practice,” Betts said. “We came out and we told each other that as long as we stick to our principles and stay true to what we do every single day, we’re going to be just fine. And that’s what we did.”
UCLA players, including Kiki Rice, left, and Gabriela Jaquez celebrate after winning the NCAA women’s basketball national championship on Sunday.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
After the nets were cut down, Betts, Leger-Walker and Jaquez returned to the trophy stage and performed their signature viral dance they first performed during the UCLA men’s team’s senior night.
They laughed, they hugged and they cried, just as they did on the bench during the waning moments of their college careers after cementing their UCLA legacies.
“I just love her,” Close said of Betts while tearing up. “I pulled her aside this morning and said no matter what happens today, I will always be more proud of who she’s become and who she’s impacted than any nets we’ll cut down and I mean that from the bottom of my heart.”
UCLA will need to rebuild with few returners, but now that her players have won a national title, Close should have her pick of the transfer portal.
Now, Close and the Bruins have championship pedigree.
UCLA players celebrate after defeating South Carolina for the NCAA women’s basketball championship.