NCAA Tournament results: UCLA dominates South Carolina for first women’s basketball national championship – NBC News

BREAKING: UCLA beats South Carolina 79-51 to win NCAA women’s basketball tournament
Gabriela Jaquez led all scorers with 21 points on the night.
UCLA star Gabriela Jaquez reacts against South Carolina during the third quarter in the national championship game.  Sarah Stier / Getty Images
In a stunning rout, UCLA cruised past South Carolina 79-51 to win the program’s first NCAA women’s basketball national championship Sunday.
Making its first title game since the NCAA adopted women’s basketball as an official sport in 1982, UCLA looked nothing close to tentative nor unsure of itself on such a pressure-packed stage — especially against an opponent far more familiar with such a spotlight.
UCLA took a 30-15 lead midway through the second quarter and at halftime its lead stood at 36-23.
Conversely, for all of its experience playing in five title games since 2017, South Carolina struggled to establish comfort either defensively or on offense while making just three of its first 18 shots. At halftime, although Tessa Johnson had made four of her six shots, her four other Gamecocks starters had shot a combined 4-for-19.
UCLA did not relent, leading 44-25 only three minutes into the second half. From there, their advantage grew still while outscoring South Carolina by 16 points in the third quarter to lead by as many as 33 points.
For the second consecutive game, UCLA forced its opponents’ top scorer to a dreadful offensive performance. Two days after watching Madison Booker of Texas miss 17 consecutive shots in one stretch, UCLA held Joyce Edwards of South Carolina to a dismal game, where Edwards made just three of her 10 shots for eight points.
With her brother, Miami Heat forward Jaime Jaquez Jr., watching from the stands, UCLA star Gabriela Jaquez scored 21 points, with 10 rebounds and five assists in a relentless performance that was capped by a late 3-pointer that Jaquez celebrated with a roaring scream before being subbed out for a final time, the game well in hand. Her All-American teammate, Lauren Betts, recovered from breathing struggles during the first half to score 14 points, with 11 rebounds.
It marked South Carolina’s second consecutive blowout loss in the NCAA final after last year’s 82-59 loss to Connecticut.
UCLA has never made the title game before, but it didn’t look that way in a 79-51 throttling of traditional power South Carolina on Sunday. The Bruins were led by Gabriela Jaquez’s 21 points but star center Lauren Betts also added 14 points and 11 rebounds. The Gamecocks struggled offensively all night but got 14 from guard Tessa Johnson.
According to the ESPN broadcast, UCLA’s last 170 points have come from senior players including Lauren Betts and Gabriela Jaquez.
Gabriela Jaquez just received a standing ovation after she was taken out of the game with a little over six minutes remaining. She has been the heart and soul of the Bruins today, scoring 16 points with nine rebounds and five assists against South Carolina.
If South Carolina is to win a fourth national title under coach Dawn Staley, it will need a dramatic turnaround because the Bruins have this game under total control entering the final quarter.
UCLA outscored South Carolina by 16 points in the third quarter, the largest scoring margin of any quarter in women’s title-game history, per the ESPN broadcast.
It feels like a party has begun in Phoenix and the fourth quarter hasn’t even begun because UCLA is leading South Carolina by 29 points with 29 seconds to play in the third quarter. The Bruins have dominated this quarter, winning it 23-7.
Just as South Carolina was beginning to chip away at its 22-point deficit here in the third quarter, UCLA’s Gabriela Jaquez swished a 3-pointer from the right wing to keep UCLA ahead, 51-30, with three minutes to go in the quarter.
Jaquez looks slight and undersized compared to everyone else on the court, but the younger sister of Miami Heat forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. has been a force on both ends, with 14 points. Most impressive is how Jaquez has three offensive rebounds (nine total) and has scored in the post despite usually standing at a height disadvantage.
UCLA is in complete control and a Gabriela Jaquez layup has extended its lead to 48-26 not even midway through the third quarter. Jaquez is up to 11 points, and Lauren Betts has 10 for the Bruins.
South Carolina strikes first in its opening possession of the second half, but UCLA answered right back after a perfect entry pass to Lauren Betts led to a quick layup. UCLA leads, 38-25.
Lauren Betts, in her halftime interview with ESPN, said that she had something stuck in her throat, which was the root of her struggles to breathe during the second quarter.
“I think it’s really dry out here in Phoenix,” Betts said. “I just had something stuck in there but I’m all good.”
Betts has six points and is one of six UCLA players with at least five points. UCLA has 11 assists on 15 made shots so far.
Trailing 32-19 with 4:34 to play before halftime, South Carolina is in dire need of an outside shot, having made just one of its eight 3-pointers. South Carolina has just two turnovers, but has missed five shots within five feet already.
The Bruins led 26-12 with nine minutes to play in the second quarter until South Carolina quickly scored on a basket and made a free throw.
But then UCLA answered to extend their lead to 28-15, and UCLA got a defensive stop on the other end before making a basket to make it 30-15. South Carolina is 1-for-6 on 3-pointers and it will need some to go down to eat into this Bruins lead.
In a moment that Geno Auriemma was perhaps watching closely, both coaches hugged before tipoff today. Auriemma claimed he was incensed by waiting too long for a pregame handshake from Dawn Staley before Friday’s semifinal. Auriemma has since apologized.
UCLA shoots 8-for-18 in the first quarter to speed out to a double-digit lead over South Carolina.
The Gamecocks have made just three of their 18 shots.
For the last two minutes of the first quarter Lauren Betts has been on the sideline coughing into a towel and seemingly struggling to breathe while gesturing toward her throat. A member of UCLA’s training staff has been next to Betts the entire time, but Betts at one point appeared to tell her that she didn’t know what was going on with her breathing.
South Carolina scored six unanswered points after falling behind 13-4, but that run was then cut short when UCLA’s Charlisse Leger-Walker made a corner 3-pointer. The score remains 16-10 with 2:46 left in the first quarter.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. led UCLA’s men to a Final Four in 2021 when the Bruins lost in the semifinals. Now the Miami Heat player is hoping his sister, Gabriela, can win a title.
With 5:35 to play in the opening quarter, South Carolina has missed multiple shots right at the rim so far and hasn’t looked quite like the team that has been on this stage before. UCLA, meanwhile, has looked a bit more poised despite making its title-game debut. Lauren Betts has four points.
On the very first possession for UCLA, star center Lauren Betts couldn’t get position comfortably against the defense of South Carolina defender Madina Okot. Okot has been playing Betts very physically in the early going, with success. How tightly officials call this game will be interesting to watch, because foul trouble by Okot will throw off the Gamecocks defense.
Playing in its first title game, UCLA has tipped off against South Carolina, a powerhouse seeking its fourth NCAA championship under coach Dawn Staley.
Late in the NCAA Tournament, Bruins coach Cori Close hasn’t played a big rotation. She’s played seven players regularly, and six of them are seniors or graduate students, led by star center Lauren Betts. The seventh player? Betts’ little sister Sienna, who’s a freshman on the team.
“All of the seniors, knowing that is our last game together, it means a lot, Lauren Betts said. “These girls are my best friends, they’re [my] sisters. I’d do anything for them. We’ve created a legacy at UCLA. I’m just hoping to continue that legacy.”
As for her sister, Betts said, “I can’t wait to see how she continues this legacy at UCLA. I’m just so proud of her.”
The Final Four teams included two teams (South Carolina and UCLA) coached by women, and two by men (UConn and Texas). While all-women-coached finals are not rare, Auriemma’s teams have dominated so often, with 12 national titles, that it’s no given the final every year will include two women head coaches.
“Give Coach Auriemma and coach Vic Schaefer their kudos in what they have done to set bars of excellence in the game,” UCLA coach Cori Close said Saturday.
“That being said, I think both Dawn (Staley) and I feel a sense of pride that we are able to continue to represent women that can coach at the highest levels, to promote our game. I think both Dawn and I really see this as something bigger than ourselves. That’s an honor. That’s an honor to be a part of that.
“Part of legacy, I don’t want to speak for her, but I do think she feels the same way, we really want to have made an impact on growing the game for a long time to come, to inspire that women can stay in this game, that we don’t lose women coaches. We need to promote more women at the grassroots levels to be coaching, getting involved in new sports. There’s just a lot of things that go into that.
“I think there’s something to be said that if you can see it, you think you can achieve it, right? I think it’s an honor to be a small part of that.”
The Bruins have a long history of success in their men’s basketball program, but last year was the first time its women’s program had made the Final Four. And now, the team has made its first national championship game.
“I definitely think last year felt like … we were reacting to everything, not anticipating,” UCLA coach Cori Close said. “Whereas now that we have been a part of this, it just was a totally different planning experience. I just felt like we were able to be more strategic in how we put our players in positioning to be successful.”
The familiarity in being in a Final Four for a second consecutive year, “you just think that makes all the difference in the world,” Close said.
Asked about the apology issued by Geno Auriemma for his postgame exchange of words with Dawn Staley on Friday night, Staley said one day later that she wasn’t even revisiting the topic.
“For me, no distractions at this time,” Staley told reporters. “Concentrating on winning the national championship. That’s it.”
Asked if she was disappointed in how much the coaches’ exchange had dominated the conversation since the semifinal, Staley said it was “a little disheartening.”
Staley was later asked how she had developed a team culture that could keep her team focused amid such distractions.
“One, I had a praying mother, right?” Staley said. “Two, I grew up in the projects of North Philly, right, Philly, 215, 267, area code. So nothing, nothing can derail us, or me, from staying with the task at hand. There are a lot of distractions that are placed in your life. You either going to address them and let it overcome or you stick with the task at hand.
“I’m choosing to stick to the task at hand. At some point everything is going to be addressed. Today, this weekend won’t be one of them.”
Just a freshman, Agot Makeer has averaged 14.6 points during her first tournament, and has made 45% of her 3-pointers, as well. She scored 14 against Connecticut in Friday’s semifinal win.
The 6-foot-1 freshman from Canada has some experience playing well on big stages already. Last year, while playing at Florida’s storied Montverde Academy, Makeer scored 20 points in the Chipotle High School National Championship.
While holding NCAA tournament opponents to just 52.6 points, the Gamecocks have worn down the opposition after halftime.
In the postseason, South Carolina has outscored its opponents by an average of 13.9 points. Considering how South Carolina was able to comfortably pull away from UConn on Friday in the fourth quarter, UCLA — which looked shaky while holding a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter of its own semifinal — must be on alert.
UConn Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma apologized on Saturday after a heated exchange with South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley on Friday. The incident occurred in the final seconds of No. 1 South Carolina’s 62-48 upset over No. 1 Connecticut at midcourt.
In a statement Saturday, Auriemma said that “there’s no excuse for how I handled the end of the game vs. South Carolina.”
“It was uncalled for in how I reacted. The story should be how well South Carolina played, and I don’t want my actions to detract from that,” he wrote. “I’ve had a great relationship with their staff, and I sincerely want to apologize to them.”
On Senior Night, the UCLA women’s basketball team performed a dance routine, with some help from the school’s dance team. Leading up to that day, the dance team put the basketball team through rehearsals. UCLA star Lauren Betts said that, after the rehearsal, she was “more sore from that than I have been in a pre-season practice. It was so exhausting.”
“For them to teach us a dance and be so patient with us, we think we’re good, but we’re definitely not as good as they are,” Betts added. “That was just a really cool experience for the girls.”
Asked if UCLA had any dances for the national title game, Betts said, ” I mean, I’m not trying to jinx anything, but I’m sure you’ll see lots of dances from us. I wouldn’t be surprised if this pops up [on Sunday].”
Just five coaches in the history of NCAA Division I basketball have won three or more national championships. A win tonight would give South Carolina coach Dawn Staley her fourth title and move her into a tie with Kim Mulkey for third-most in history. The list is:
Andrew Greif is a sports reporter for NBC News Digital. 
Greg Rosenstein is the sports editor for NBC News Digital.

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