UCLA Wins First-Ever NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship

The UCLA women’s basketball team has scored the school’s first-ever women’s NCAA championship title, dominating the South Carolina Gamecocks 79-51 in a hard-fought Easter Sunday game that capped several years of momentum for the Bruin squad that features superstar player Lauren Betts.

Betts, the team’s 6’7″ center, and guard Kiki Rice led the Bruins to overwhelm the Gamecocks throughout the game. Going into the fourth quarter, UCLA had a 29-point (61-32) lead over the Gamecocks, a formidable team who have earned three championship titles in the past 10 years (2017, 2022 and 2024) under the leadership of respected coach Dawn Staley.

UCLA women’s basketball team had yet to earn a national championship in the more than 45 since the NCAA women’s basketball tournament was established in 1982. On the contrary, UCLA is the reigning champ with 11 wins in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, which dates back to 1939. UCLA women made it to the Final Four stage for the first time last year but lost to UConn.

In the 2025-26 season, UCLA seniors Betts, Rice and others played with an intensity that demonstrated the team’s hunger to make UCLA history. As Sunday’s game ended without any suspense given UCLA’s lead, the seniors on the team took a final emotional bow on the court.

Cori Close, in her 15th season as UCLA women’s basketball coach, has seen her profile rise along with the program’s fortunes. Close is known for her bluntness and passion that has endeared her to fans and to her players.

On April 3, after UCLA defeated University of Texas in the Final Four, Close apologized to the fans in an ESPN interview about how the two teams brawled over each point.

“It wasn’t the sport I thought I was coaching,” Close said. “I think it was more rugby than it was basketball. I wanted to apologize to all the fans that we couldn’t give them a cleaner game, with 23 turnovers.”

But Close has also been effusive about how special the UCLA squad of the past few years has been given the leadership of talented players such as Betts, Rice, Gabriela Jaquez and Charlisse Leger-Walker. The hard work put in over several years paid off with a miracle season that included only one regular-season game loss. That was to Texas, which UCLA came back to defeat in the Final Four to secure its championship berth against South Carolina.

“The preparation that they have put in this — I’ve been doing this for 33 years this is the most intentionally hard-working group of people in terms of being prepared for the pro level as well as being prepared for our team that I’ve ever worked with,” Close said earlier this month at a news conference.

Betts, Rice, Jaquez and Leger-Walker are heading off to begin their professional basketball careers with the WNBA draft that is scheduled to be held on April 13.