{"id":567439,"date":"2026-04-06T07:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T07:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/567439\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T07:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T07:17:08","slug":"uclas-lauren-betts-dominates-her-way-to-national-title-and-most-outstanding-player-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/567439\/","title":{"rendered":"UCLA’s Lauren Betts dominates her way to national title and most outstanding player award"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHOENIX (AP) \u2014 Lauren Betts forced herself to repeatedly watch last season\u2019s Final Four<\/a> debacle against UConn, using the lessons learned in this year\u2019s return trip to the national semifinals.<\/p>\n

The two-time All-American did her homework following a season-low points in UCLA\u2019s<\/a> only loss of the season, applying what she gleaned from the game film to help take down Texas in the rematch.<\/p>\n

Betts opened up about her mental health issues, the honesty taking a weight off her shoulders while, hopefully, helping others facing their own darkness.<\/p>\n

This life of hers has been a pursuit of perfection \u2014 or at least the best version of herself \u2014 and Betts capped the college basketball portion of it by reaching the pinnacle of her sport with one final dominating performance.<\/p>\n

UCLA won its first NCAA national championship with a 79-51 blowout of South Carolina<\/a> on Sunday and Betts, as she\u2019s been throughout her career, was the catalyst at both ends of the floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI showed up with zero confidence and wasn\u2019t sure if I wanted to really play basketball for that much longer,\u201d Betts said. \u201cCoach Cori (Close) really believed in me and wanted to see me accomplish everything that I\u2019d ever dreamed of. They wanted me to see myself the way they all see me and and I feel like now at this point I can finally, truly do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-7 senior shook off a first-half coughing fit \u2014 the dry desert air got to her \u2014 to finish with 14 points, 11 rebounds and two blocked shots. She altered and prevented even the thought of several others at the rim to give UCLA its first national championship since taking the 1978 AIAW title.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a very dominant player,\u201d South Carolina\u2019s Tessa Johnson said. \u201cShe\u2019s consistent and effective. It\u2019s hard to scout that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Betts had a similar impact in UCLA\u2019s 51-44 shutdown of Texas in the national semifinals, a 16-point, 11-rebound, three-block performance that set the stage for her to be selected as the Final Four\u2019s most outstanding player.<\/p>\n

So what if there wasn\u2019t a trophy at the announcement.<\/p>\n

Betts got to share a national championship with her younger sister, Sienna, a freshman on the team, along with friends and family in the stands.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were crying more than I was because they\u2019ve seen me since my sophomore year, just how I matured and it has been really special for them,\u201d Betts said. \u201cThey mean so much to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The closing flourish capped a rocky-at-times career.<\/p>\n

Betts was the nation\u2019s No. 1 high school recruit out of Grandview High School, in Aurora, Colorado, and chose to play at perennial powerhouse Stanford. She had a solid freshman season, but the building mental health issues she had been struggling with began to bubble closer to the surface even after she transferred to UCLA.<\/p>\n

Betts opened up about her struggles last year and expounded upon it in a recent first-person story<\/a>, in which she detailed the brutal hospital conditions and the epiphany once she got out \u2014 that she wanted to be here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just feel like for me, basketball and this platform that I\u2019ve been given, I was put on this earth to do more than play basketball,\u201d Betts said. \u201cI think the journey I\u2019ve had, the hardships I\u2019ve went through are to help other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Betts dedicated herself to getting better, on and off the court, and became one of the nation\u2019s best college basketball players.<\/p>\n

She was UCLA\u2019s first Associated Press All-American a year ago and backed that up with another All-American nod after averaging 18.5 points and 7.6 rebounds while shooting 60.1% from the field and leading the Bruins with 71 blocked shots.<\/p>\n

With Betts anchoring the middle, the Bruins (37-1) one-upped the program\u2019s first trip the Final Four last year with the best season in history.<\/p>\n

UCLA reeled off a school-record 31 straight wins following the 76-65 loss to Texas<\/a>, including the payback win in the national semifinals. The Bruins then erased memories of last year\u2019s blowout Final Four loss to UConn with its first NCAA national championship.<\/p>\n

Betts, as usual, was at the center of it all, the best version of herself leading to the greatest moment of her and her teammates\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP March Madness bracket: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ncaa-womens-bracket<\/a> and coverage: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/march-madness<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX (AP) \u2014 Lauren Betts forced herself to repeatedly watch last season\u2019s Final Four debacle against UConn, using…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[1017,3830,402,2356,4044,2662,65479,147548,245156,126144,8643,5614,1782,59129,99,65481,17392,126146,1765,2664],"class_list":{"0":"post-567439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-az-state-wire","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-college-basketball","13":"tag-college-sports","14":"tag-lauren-betts","15":"tag-march-madness-ncaa-tournament","16":"tag-ncaa-womens-bracket","17":"tag-ncaa-womens-division-i-basketball-championship","18":"tag-sc-state-wire","19":"tag-south-carolina","20":"tag-south-carolina-gamecocks","21":"tag-south-carolina-gamecocks-womens-basketball","22":"tag-sports","23":"tag-tessa-johnson","24":"tag-ucla-bruins","25":"tag-ucla-bruins-womens-basketball","26":"tag-womens-sports","27":"tag-womens-college-basketball"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}