When determination is driven with purpose, the change a year’s time can bring will astonish you. No team exemplifies this more than the UCLA Bruins women’s basketball team. In the 2025 national championship, the Bruins faced the UConn Huskies in the program’s first-ever Final Four appearance. For UConn, it was the 16th Final Four appearance in the last 17 tournaments, and the team played like it, dominating UCLA 85-51 to advance to the title game.
“We got exposed. We got out-toughed. We got our butts beat today,” UCLA coach Cori Close said after the game. “And it stings right now. And may the pain of that regret and this loss … if handled well, buy us a ticket to be better the next time hopefully we get this opportunity.”
Star center Lauren Betts had 26 points on 11-for-18 shooting and five rebounds, but was the only Bruin to make more than three field goals.
“I hope this fuels us,” Betts said, “and I hope that we come out angry after this.”
Little did Close and Betts know their team’s efforts from that point forward would propel the program to heights unforeseen in Bruins history. In a game that felt as if it was over before it even truly started, UCLA dismantled South Carolina en route to the school’s first national championship in the Final Four era, 79-51.
Betts dominated the Gamecocks on both sides of the ball and was an unrelenting force with the attention she demands on defense. All five Bruins starters recorded double-digit scoring performances, proving to be too much for one of the best defensive units in the country. From the first whistle, South Carolina never responded with a consistent effort in battling UCLA’s pressure and looked rattled attempting to do so.
LAUREN BETTS SHINED AT UCLA 🔥
NCAA champion
NCAA Tournament MOP
2× First-team AP All-American
Big Ten Player of the Year
2× Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year
2× First-team All-Big Ten
2× Big Ten All-Defensive Team
All-Pac-12 Team
Pac-12 All-Defensive TeamThe future is… pic.twitter.com/1BNcfu6qcS
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) April 5, 2026
For one of the first times in South Carolina’s recent tourney success, the program lacked the experience it boasted in previous campaigns. UCLA had seven dependable seniors to choose from, which ended up being the deciding factor for the Bruins. For years, this was a team that failed to win when it mattered under the bright lights in the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight from 2016 to 2024.
What didn’t get enough attention were the efforts from Close. Since Betts transferred to UCLA, the team’s system relied too much on her ability to be a matchup nightmare in the paint and not much. This was the season where that changed for the better. Instead of reloading the post-up and spray to the perimeter, the Bruins developed a more sophisticated shot profile with more creation from the wing. Having five players shoot better than 35 percent from deep also helps, but the flow in which they came with consistent ball movement stunned the best defenses in the country more times than not.
The Bruins have six players eligible for the 2026 WNBA Draft on Monday. With Charlisse Leger-Walker and Angela Dugalić, ESPN projects that Betts (No. 4), Gianna Kneepkens (No. 8), Gabriela Jaquez (No. 11), and Kiki Rice (No. 12) will go in the first round. If that happens, they will make history as the first collegiate program in WNBA history to have six players selected in a single draft.
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Born and raised in Chicago, Christan Braswell is a women’s sports journalist with a focus on the WNBA and women’s college basketball. He’s an avid fan of elevator screens and stuffed-crust pizza. Outside of sports, he’s an avid cook and lover of the great outdoors.
We’ve reached one of the best times of the sports calendar, folks. We’re going dancing with Sweet 16 basketball today, with four games and another four throughout most of Saturday. […]
