{"id":255811,"date":"2026-04-07T14:43:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T14:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/255811\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T14:43:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T14:43:21","slug":"sacramentos-march-madness-run-ends-with-uclas-historic-ncaa-championship-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/255811\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacramento\u2019s March Madness Run Ends With UCLA\u2019s Historic NCAA Championship Victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n LSU\u2019s Milaysia Fulwiley drives to the basket against Duke on
\n March 27.\n<\/p>\n

The
\n highly anticipated tournament had everything: Eight teams hailing
\n from coast to coast, legendary coaches with deep Sacramento
\n connections, and a buzzer beater for the ages, as the 2026 NCAA
\n Women\u2019s Division I Basketball Championship lit up Golden 1 Center
\n March 27-30.\n<\/p>\n

\n Sacramento fans also got to see
\n the two teams sent to the Final Four \u2014 UCLA and South Carolina \u2014
\n square off in the title game on Sunday, with UCLA pulling off the
\n stunning upset in Phoenix, routing South Carolina 79-51 to claim
\n its first ever NCAA women\u2019s basketball championship.\n<\/p>\n

\n While Sacramento has played host
\n to the NCAA men\u2019s and women\u2019s tournament eight other times at
\n Arco Arena and Golden 1 Center since 1994, those were first and
\n second-round games (the only time women previously appeared was
\n 2010). This year Sacramento was one of only two sites \u2014 with Fort
\n Worth being the other \u2014 to host the deeper Sweet 16 and Elite 8
\n matchups. After six total games and four days, No. 1 seeds UCLA
\n and South Carolina survived and moved on to the Final Four
\n tournament that began April 3.\n<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n It is an emotional final minutes for Minnesota players as the
\n clock winds down on the Gophers\u2019 season during their loss to UCLA
\n on March 27.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n With Sacramento State and Visit
\n Sacramento hosting, the week featured all of the emotion March
\n Madness is known for, with Visit Sacramento saying the tournament
\n resulted in an extra booking of about 13,000 hotel rooms to
\n accommodate UCLA, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Texas Christian
\n University, Louisiana State, South Carolina, Virginia and Duke,
\n bringing in an estimated $10 million in revenue.\n<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n LSU\u2019s Flau\u2019jae Johnson reacts and Duke players celebrate after
\n Ashlon Jackson\u2019s buzzer-beating three-pointer gives the Blue
\n Devils the 87-85 win on March 27 at Golden 1 Center.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe came out with our team last
\n week, and it\u2019s been an awesome six days here in Sacramento,\u201d says
\n Tom Buddie, TCU\u2019s athletic director, as he sat at an outside
\n table at Tom\u2019s Watch Bar across from Golden 1 Center before the
\n Elite 8 matchup with South Carolina on March 30. \u201cPhenomenal,
\n phenomenal welcome, and the weather has been absolutely Chamber
\n of Commerce. And what I love about Sacramento \u2014 and this is my
\n first time here \u2014 is the walkability. We\u2019re staying at the Hyatt
\n Regency, and to be able to go around the Capitol and to Old
\n Sacramento has been just really kind of eye-opening in a really
\n good way.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Duke coach Tara Lawson speaks at the press conference at Golden 1
\n Center after the buzzer-beater by Ashlon Jackson gave the Blue
\n Devils the thrilling 87-87 Sweet 16 win over No. 2 seed LSU.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n While Buddie\u2019s Horned Frogs lost
\n to South Carolina later that evening, denying them a trip to the
\n Final Four, he probably got some advice on what to do in
\n Sacramento from his head coach Mark Campbell, who was at
\n Sacramento State for two seasons, taking the Hornets in 2023 to
\n their first NCAA Tournament berth after the team won its first
\n Big Sky regular season and tournament championships.\n<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n UCLA center Lauren Betts shoots and scores against Minnesota on
\n March 27 at Golden 1 Center.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n Another coach in the tournament
\n with deep Sacramento ties was Duke head coach Kara Lawson, a star
\n with the WNBA Sacramento Monarchs for seven of her 13 WNBA
\n seasons, which included the team\u2019s WNBA championship in 2005.
\n Lawson, an Olympic gold medalist, was named head coach of the USA
\n Basketball Women\u2019s National Team last September, after coaching
\n the 2025 USA Women\u2019s AmeriCup Team to a gold medal.\n<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n The Oklahoma band lights up Golden 1 Center during the Sooners\u2019
\n game with South Carolina on March 28.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n Lawson was on the winning end of
\n Saturday\u2019s buzzer-beater by Ashlon Jackson as the Blue Devils
\n claimed the thrilling 87-85 Sweet 16 win over No. 2 seed LSU. At
\n the press conference after the game, Lawson talked about her days
\n in Sacramento, calling it \u201cone of the great basketball towns in
\n the country.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI love this city so much,\u201d
\n Lawson said. \u201cI\u2019m telling you, everywhere I\u2019ve gone, as we\u2019re
\n walking down the street, people are, like, hey, man, thanks for
\n that title, thanks for that championship. And to be here and to
\n be able to come back now as a coach and even though this city saw
\n me as a player, it\u2019s really cool.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n The TCU fan section behind the basket cheer on the Horned Frogs
\n during their March 30 Elite 8 loss to South Carolina.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n UCLA has a huge fan base in
\n Sacramento and its fans travel well, so anytime the Bruins come
\n to town the crowds are more animated, prompting UCLA guard Angela
\n Dugalic to say in the last game\u2019s news conference that \u201cI know
\n it\u2019s a little bit away from LA but it just still felt like a home
\n court advantage.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n TCU head coach Mark Campbell, who was at Sacramento State for two
\n years, with players during a time out on March 30.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n Led by star Lauren Betts, who
\n recently told her personal story in
\n The Players
\n Tribune<\/a>, UCLA advanced
\n to the Final Four, handily beating Oklahoma 87-68 and then
\n Lawson\u2019s Duke squad, 70-58, with Betts leading all scorers in the
\n Elite 8 against Duke with 23 points.\n<\/p>\n

\n Also heading to Phoenix, though
\n in another capacity, was PA announcer
\n Jaime Coffee<\/a>
\n of Sacramento, who made her sixth
\n consecutive Final Four appearance, but was ironically behind the
\n microphone at Golden 1 Center for her first time.\n<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n South Carolina center Madina Okot shows a piece of the net she
\n cut down after the Game Cocks beat TCU to advance to the Final
\n Four on March 30.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n Coffee, the former voice of the
\n Monarchs, as well as Sacramento Republic FC, became the first
\n woman to become the PA announcer for an NBA game when she was
\n asked to fill in for Scott Moak in 2014 at Sleep Train Arena.
\n Coffee has some special memories of Lawson after the Monarchs won
\n the WNBA title and Lawson jumped up on her table in
\n excitement.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s been fun to watch her
\n grow,\u201d says Coffee, whose full-time job is director of
\n communications for the CHP. \u201cI also just worked the ACC
\n conference tournament, and so I just saw her.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Sacramento fans will have another
\n chance next year to experience March Madness, as the men\u2019s NCAA
\n tournament is returning to Sacramento in 2027, with the Golden 1
\n Center, Sacramento State and Visit Sacramento hosting the first
\n and second rounds, scheduled for March 19-21.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u2013\n<\/p>\n

\n Never miss a story: Get Comstock\u2019s weekly newsletter<\/a> delivered to your
\n inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LSU\u2019s Milaysia Fulwiley drives to the basket against Duke on March 27. The highly anticipated tournament had everything:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-255811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255811","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=255811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}