The group that coach Close put together through a combination of high school commitments and transfer portal players capped off their stellar careers with a championship, scoring all the points in the title game.
“Connectivity. Attention to detail. You know, I looked them in the eyes before in the locker room, before the game, and I said, 'I’m so proud to be able to say this,'” Close said. “Because all year we’ve been saying the talent is our floor, but our character will determine our ceiling.”
The title is UCLA’s first since winning the 1978 AIAW championship, which was the post-season tournament for women’s basketball before the NCAA took over in 1982.
The championship game loss was the second straight for the Gamecocks, who won the title in 2024. Dawn Staley and her Gamecocks (36-4) will be favoured to return to the game’s biggest stage with a talented group of expected returnees, led by Joyce Edwards and Agot Makeer.
Like their 51-44 semifinal win over Texas, the Bruins were locked in defensively, anchored by Betts. She finished with 11 rebounds and exited the game with 3:45 left, giving Close a huge hug. The six-foot-seven senior earned Most Outstanding Player honours of the Final Four.
“UCLA is a quality team with very experienced players who got a taste of being in the Final Four last year, and you make adjustments,” South Carolina’s Staley said. “From last year to this year — they played determined last year, but they played more determined this year because they were so close.”
Offensively, the Bruins had a much easier time than in the semifinal game, which saw the team score only 20 points in the first half. The Bruins surpassed that total in the opening 10 minutes against South Carolina. Kiki’s Rice 3-pointer just before the first-quarter buzzer made it 21-10 as the Bruins got off to a strong start and South Carolina struggled with 17 per cent shooting, its poorest quarter of the season.
The Bruins extended the lead to 15 points in the second quarter by clogging up the paint on defence and working the ball inside on offence for a 36-23 lead at the half.
UCLA put the game away in the third quarter, opening the period with a 12-3 run. Jaquez had five points during the spurt. South Carolina never threatened again as the Bruins outscored them 25-9 in the period.
“We just didn’t have it today. We tried, but we just didn’t have it today,” Staley said. “They were the better team.”
South Carolina avoided the most lopsided loss in championship history of 33 points, set in 2013 when UConn defeated Louisville. The Gamecocks also surpassed the title game record low of 44 points by Louisiana Tech in 1987 against Tennessee.
The Gamecocks were trying to cement their name as the premier program in the sport with a fourth championship and third in the past five seasons. It just wasn’t meant to be Sunday as they had their worst shooting game of the season against a talented UCLA team.
“This is not the ending we wanted, but we got here. No one thought we would, and we did it,” said Tessa Johnson, who led South Carolina with 14 points.
Makeer added 11 for the Gamecocks.
“The score speaks for itself,” said Gamecocks senior Raven Johnson, who played in five Final Fours in her career.
Close has been at UCLA for 15 seasons, but her connections go deeper with the school as she was mentored by the legendary Bruins men’s coach John Wooden, who won 10 national championships at the school.
Their bond began when she was 22 years old and he was 83. She shares the same first name with one of his great-granddaughters. Close visited Wooden bi-weekly, adopting his “Pyramid of Success” and focus on character and its paid off with her team.
“Coach Wooden always said, ‘You got to do it the way you’re wired to do it, not the way anyone else did.’ And I just tried imperfectly to stay true to that,” Close said.
