"What a great way to end it."
In 2022, UCLA Bruins head coach Cori Close set the wheels in motion for what would turn into the greatest team the program had ever seen.
It was a strong recruiting class, headlined by centre Lauren Betts and guard Kiki Rice, but more importantly for the Bruins, it was deep. Close managed to nab five recruits on signing day: five-stars Rice and Gabriela Jaquez, four-stars Londynn Jones and Christeen Iwauala, and Lina Sontag, a No. 4-ranked international recruit from Germany.
Though the transfer portal got in the way and saw Jones (USC) and Iwauala (Ole Miss) switch allegiances, the Bruins profited and more, nabbing Betts from then-Pac-12 rival Stanford.
Betts, Rice and Jaquez: all 2022 recruits, all UCLA Bruins, all national champions. At long last.
When the buzzer sounded at the end of a 79-51 romp over South Carolina, "What a great way to end it" is all Jaquez had to say to ESPN sideline reporter Holly Rowe. Decades waiting for a shot, years of falling short, it all led to this moment, in what will most likely be the last chance these players have to cut down the nets.
It was all or nothing for the Bruins, as the starting five of the three aforementioned players, along with Gianna Kneepkens and Charlisse Leger-Walker, are all either seniors or graduate students, meaning that this UCLA team will have a wildly different look come next season. But the gamble paid off for coach Close, as for the first time in program history, the Bruins are NCAA national champions.
"It's truly indescribable. The loyalty, the steadfast spirit, their character that they've chosen day in and day out. I just am so humbled that they've chosen to commit to our mission," Close said to Rowe during the post-game trophy presentation. "So thank you to our alumni, our fans, the families of our players, our great university. This is meaningful because of the village we get to share it with."
In the grand scheme of things, it was just a chapter closing on UCLA basketball history, but it wouldn't be so bad if it ended here, would it? From 2022 five-star recruits to long-term Bruins to national champions, and finally, to first-round WNBA picks. The stories of Betts, Jaquez and Rice are intertwined, forever in Blue and Gold lore.
Betts overcomes health issue, dominates big battle
Sitting on the bench midway through the first quarter, concern was mounting for UCLA superstar centre Betts.
After subbing out for sister Sienna, Lauren sat on the bench, grabbing at her chest, coughing into a towel, undergoing an examination and showing clear signs of discomfort in her throat.
Playing in likely the final game of her sterling collegiate career, the two-time All-American was finally in the place she and the Bruins had worked for, playing in the program's first-ever national championship game and in line for a storybook ending.
Nothing was going to get in her way. Not even the six-foot-six Madina Okot, one of the only bigs in college hoops who could match up with her six-foot-seven frame.
Betts overcame that issue, which she later blamed on the dry Sonoran Desert air in Phoenix, then found the energy to climb Mt. Okot, grabbing entry passes over her head, hitting turnaround shots with a hand in her face, snatching rebounds to turn SC's offensive woes into tantrums, and blacking out the sun near the rim.
She finished with a crisp 14 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks in 31 minutes, en route to being named the tournament's most outstanding player, but more than any stat can tell the story, her resolve to sustain her physical play and lay it on the line will be what she's remembered for.
Wherever she lands in the WNBA Draft in the coming weeks, that team will have itself a defensive anchor for years to come.
Gamecocks stifled in championship yet again
Once a sure thing in the championship, Dawn Staley’s scissors have now twice become too dull to cut down the nets in the National Final.
While the expectations weren't as high for South Carolina this year — having lost Chloe Kitts to a season-ending injury, Te-Hina Paopao to the WNBA and MiLaysia Fulwiley to the transfer portal — a breakout cast of sophomore Joyce Edwards, two-time champ Raven Johnson, star transfers Madina Okot and Ta'Niya Latson, and sharpshooter Tessa Johnson were still expected to give UCLA a run for its money.
Instead, a team that has been here before and has acted like it all season long looked like a band of freshmen against the experienced Bruins.
It was, quite easily, their worst offensive performance of the season, scoring 51 points on 29 per cent from the field — both season lows — and 13 per cent from three.
The Bruins are a solid defence, ranking 18th in the nation in defensive rating this season, but they're not the 2004 Pistons. A Gamecocks team with the fourth-best offence in the nation, led by a star offensive talent like Edwards, rarely collapses that spectacularly in the final.
Before last year's finale, the Gamecocks were a perfect three-for-three in the national championship. While making it to three finals is a testament unto itself, that inevitable South Carolina feeling is dissipating.
Can freshman Agot Makeer — a native of Thunder Bay, Ont., who has enjoyed a breakout tournament — turn things around for them next season?
All-Gas Gabs
While Jaquez didn't get to hoist the Most Outstanding Player Award at the end of a 21-point, 10 rebounds and five-assist showing, her performance put her in some esteemed company in the college hoops ranks.
The senior wing joined Sarah Strong, Breanna Stewart, Chamique Holdsclaw and Dawn Staley as the only players to post that statline or better in a national championship. The reigning AP Player of the Year, a four-time national champion, a three-time national champion, and a basketball Hall of Famer — not bad.
Jaquez was everywhere on Sunday, assisting the first basket of the game to Betts, out-hustling bigger South Carolina players for boards on both ends and converting second-chance opportunities through traffic.
Her three-pointer with 3:17 left in the third to put UCLA up 21 felt like the nail in the coffin, putting the game far enough out of reach that an out-of-rhythm Gamecocks offence wouldn't be able to pull anything back for the remaining 13 minutes.
But it was never about one moment for Jaquez — it's been a long road for the senior, who came off the bench for the Bruins in her first two seasons and didn't entirely come into her own as a starter last year.
After the Bruins fell short to UConn in the Final Four last year — an 85-51 ego death, where Jaquez was kept off the scoresheet in 33 minutes of play — the SoCal native came into her senior season with a renewed confidence, honed by practice, visualization, and too many tough losses to stomach.
So, to avoid those losses, they decided to end the 2025-26 season with a 37-1 record. More than that, as she told Holly Rowe, "We decided to be national champions."
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