{"id":253592,"date":"2026-04-06T03:03:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T03:03:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/253592\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T03:03:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T03:03:33","slug":"gabriela-jaquez-lives-her-long-held-ucla-championship-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/253592\/","title":{"rendered":"Gabriela Jaquez lives her long-held UCLA championship dream"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PHOENIX\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Gabriela Jaquez<\/a>, tone-setter. Culture-setter. Scene-setter.<\/p>\n

Firestarter.<\/p>\n

Elite job-finisher \u2014 around the rim and in life.<\/p>\n

UCLA\u2019s first NCAA women\u2019s basketball championship win was more coronation than ballgame, a 79-51 blowout<\/a> of monumental proportions against perennial power South Carolina.<\/p>\n

Fittingly, it starred one of the members of the Bruins\u2019 royal family: a Jaquez hooper stealing her opponents\u2019 souls from the outset.<\/p>\n

\"UCLA's <\/p>\n

UCLA\u2019s Gabriela Jaquez drives ahead of South Carolina\u2019s Tessa Johnson (5) during the first half of the NCAA championship game Sunday.<\/p>\n

(Ronaldo Bola\u00f1os \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

All Gabs, no brakes. Going downhill. Smirking gamely all the while.<\/p>\n

\u201cRelentless,\u201d Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley said. \u201cRelentless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Definitely one of those \u201cuncommon, courageous women\u201d that UCLA coach Cori Close sought to play in her program.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiving her dream,\u201d said former UCLA star Jaime Jaquez Jr.<\/a>, whom Bruins fans might be thinking of now as \u201cGabriela\u2019s brother<\/a>\u201d instead of the other way around.<\/p>\n

Jaime led the UCLA men to the Final Four in 2021 and has gone on to make his name in the NBA as a contributor on the Miami Heat, including scoring 32 points against the Washington Wizards on Saturday as a prelude to Gabriela\u2019s big game \u2014 which he flew to witness in person, to Gabriela\u2019s great delight.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I have bragging rights,\u201d she said in a singsong tone after the game. \u201cI\u2019m a champion.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s largely because of how high Gabriela was able to crank up the heat from the jump Sunday. In her first five minutes of championship action, she had five points, four rebounds and two assists, and UCLA had a 13-4 lead that it wouldn\u2019t think about relinquishing.<\/p>\n

By the time she subbed out for good after her second three-pointer, UCLA had a 79-46 lead with 2:52 to play \u2014 and she exited as just the fifth female in NCAA history to have at least 20 points (she had 21), 10 rebounds and five assists in a national championship game.<\/p>\n

\"UCLA's <\/p>\n

UCLA\u2019s Gabriela Jaquez celebrates after scoring while being fouled in the first quarter against South Carolina on Sunday.<\/p>\n

(Ronaldo Bola\u00f1os \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

That puts her in the company of superstars Sarah Strong, Breanna Stewart, Chamique Holdsclaw and Staley, the former Virginia point guard.<\/p>\n

Gabriela had a fan in WNBA star Caitlin Clark: \u201cJaquez going crazy,\u201d she posted on X.<\/p>\n

And the Red Hot Chili Peppers\u2019 L.A. sports-loving bassist Flea chimed in there too: \u201cGotta love the Jaquez family! Go Bruins.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s for their impact on the court, but how about this: In 2023, the UCLA Latino Alumni Assn. and UCLA Alumni Assn. announced the Jaquez Family Scholarship Fund, which offers financial support for freshmen and transfer students.<\/p>\n

The truest of blue-and-gold bloods, Gabriela decided in third grade that she wanted to play for UCLA. And then \u201cdecided\u201d with her close-knit teammates Sunday \u201cto be national champions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was the plan and we accomplished it,\u201d said the 6-foot guard from Camarillo, who likely will be the third player of Mexican heritage to play in the WNBA.<\/p>\n

Gabriela joined Lauren Betts<\/a> and her college roommate Kiki Rice<\/a> on the all-tournament team \u2014 Rice and Jaquez arrived at UCLA as freshmen, intent on taking the program where it hadn\u2019t been before.<\/p>\n

They reached the program\u2019s first Final Four last season. They reached \u2014 and won \u2014 the first NCAA championship game this year.<\/p>\n

They go out on a program-record 31-game winning streak, having gone 14-0 at Pauley Pavilion in their final season. By winning their final game by the third-most points in NCAA women\u2019s championship game history, dancing in the locker room to celebrate beating, fittingly, another \u2019SC.<\/p>\n

\"UCLA's <\/p>\n

UCLA\u2019s, from left, Charlisse Leger-Walker, Gabriela Jaquez and Lauren Betts dance on stage after the Bruins\u2019 win in the NCAA championship game Sunday.<\/p>\n

(Ronaldo Bola\u00f1os \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cComing in as a freshman, that was the plan \u2014 to cut down nets,\u201d Gabriela said. \u201cI pictured this moment many times, being a national champion; to do it with this group, it means everything\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cTo finish out my career with a national championship \u2026 Really. Does. Mean. Everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also: \u201cJob\u2019s finished,\u201d Gabriela said. \u201cJob is finished.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

UCLA players celebrate after defeating South Carolina for the NCAA women\u2019s basketball championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Gabriela Jaquez, tone-setter. Culture-setter. Scene-setter. Firestarter. Elite job-finisher \u2014 around the rim and in life. UCLA\u2019s first NCAA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[6265,112518,112516,96768,18663,112515,30810,85754,42838,112517,48,52,51,47,50,49,16133,1417,4576,7556,1092],"class_list":{"0":"post-253592","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-assist","9":"tag-basketball-superstar-sarah-strong","10":"tag-big-big-game","11":"tag-bruins-man","12":"tag-champion","13":"tag-first-ncaa-woman","14":"tag-freshman","15":"tag-gabriela","16":"tag-gabriela-jaquez","17":"tag-jaquez-family","18":"tag-la","19":"tag-la-headlines","20":"tag-la-news","21":"tag-los-angeles","22":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","23":"tag-los-angeles-news","24":"tag-miami-heat","25":"tag-point","26":"tag-program","27":"tag-rebound","28":"tag-ucla"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}