Lauren Betts and Gabriela Jaquez lead UCLA to a national title with a 79-51 rout of South Carolina
The win over Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks gave the Bruins their first women’s basketball national championship since the sport’s AIAW era in 1978.
PHOENIX — Leading up to Selection Sunday, UCLA claimed that its 31-1 record had a stronger foundation than Connecticut’s 34-0. The bracket-makers didn’t agree.
Three Sundays later, the Bruins made the ultimate case.
With stars Lauren Betts, Gabriela Jaquez, and Kiki Rice among five winning players in double figures, UCLA routed South Carolina, 79-51, for its first women’s basketball national championship since the sport’s AIAW era in 1978. Fittingly, the hero of that team, Ann Meyers Drysdale, was among the luminaries in the stands for this title.
Philadelphia native and South Carolina coach Dawn Staley was denied her fourth national championship and third in five years.
Betts was dialed in from the game’s first basket, when she took a high pass in the lane and spun on Joyce Edwards for a jumper off the glass. Madina Okot fared no better on Betts’ second make, as Betts gained a step inside before taking a rainbow pass and shaking Okot off under the rim.
There was a stretch from the midpoint of the first quarter into the second where Betts sat amid a coughing fit. At halftime, she told ESPN’s broadcast that it was caused by the dry air in Phoenix, a quite relatable thing for the many out-of-towners in the arena.
But the rest of her team gave Staley’s Gamecocks no respite. The Bruins led 21-10 at the end of the first quarter, capped off with Rice’s three just before the buzzer.
Just over a minute into the second quarter, Betts returned, having taken some fluids and medication from an inhaler. She scored again just before the midpoint of the period, found open at the free throw line for an easy look.
South Carolina turned up its defensive pressure in the latter stages of the quarter, but it only made so much difference. UCLA led by double digits throughout the frame and took a 36-23 lead into intermission.
The Bruins showed they can play strong defense too, holding the Gamecocks to a mere 25.7% shooting from the floor — 9-for-35, including 1-for-8 from three-point range.
Betts went right back to work to start the third quarter, setting a pick for Charlisse Leger-Walker before beating Okot in the lane again for a layup.
In the first five minutes of the period, Betts set multiple picks, sent passes out from the lane for teammates’ good looks, claimed a rebound, registered one block, and made another defensive play that could have counted as one.
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Add all that up and UCLA led by 20 points, 48-28, at the midpoint. It was 61-32 at the end of the quarter, with South Carolina’s nine-point total the lowest in a third quarter of NCAA women’s championship game history, and the fifth-lowest in any period of the 44 all-time finals.
Some of the thousands of Bruins fans who traveled to the first women’s Final Four in the West since 1999 chanted “M-V-P!” at Betts while she stood at the free throw line. They were 10 minutes from getting her wish, as she was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player.
Jaquez led all scorers with 21 points, and also had 10 rebounds and five assists. Betts had 14 points and 11 rebounds, Gianna Kneepkens had 15 points, and Rice and Ledger-Walker had 10 each.
Tessa Johnson was South Carolina’s top scorer with 14.