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<\/p>\nPHOENIX \u2014 With gold confetti falling from the rafters, Lauren Betts couldn\u2019t hold back the tears.<\/p>\n
A magical run by UCLA ended in dominating fashion when Betts and the Bruins defeated South Carolina 79-51. It capped the best season in UCLA women\u2019s basketball program history and gave coach Cori Close her first national championship.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t a massive surprise that the Bruins were in this position. UCLA was the most talented team in the country and came into the NCAA Tournament as the second No. 1 seed. It has five players with potential to be first-round picks in this month\u2019s WNBA Draft. Still, South Carolina was the 3.5-point favorite coming into the championship.<\/p>\n
The Bruins, though, dominated the title game from the beginning, never letting South Carolina breathe. UCLA was led by Gabriela Jaquez\u2019s 21 points and 10 rebounds, while Betts had 14 points and 11 rebounds. But it wasn\u2019t one player who carried this balanced Bruins team that lost just once all season. All five starters scored in double figures behind a strong game plan by Close and a group that fought through early injury adversity to keep control.<\/p>\n
The Bruins jumped out to a 14-3 lead five minutes into the game and did so by baiting South Carolina\u2019s post players into jump shots. South Carolina center Madina Okot made 1 of 5 shots in the first quarter, and the Gamecocks\u2019 leading scorer, Joyce Edwards, missed all three attempts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought the first quarter, first half, we had a lot of people taking shots that aren\u2019t normal for us,\u201d Staley said. \u201cSo we didn\u2019t do a good job of getting the people that probably was supposed to get some better looks the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
That, mixed with UCLA\u2019s guard pressure, kept South Carolina out of rhythm early, even when Betts went to the bench with two minutes left in the first quarter. Betts, UCLA\u2019s 6-foot-7 All-America center, was struggling with her breathing on the bench and being treated by trainers.<\/p>\n
She re-entered the game early in the second quarter, but the Gamecocks didn\u2019t make a dent in the score with Betts on the bench. Instead, UCLA extended its lead to 12 points, going on a 10-4 run with its most impactful defender and post presence on the bench.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n UCLA\u2019s Lauren Betts shoots the ball against South Carolina\u2019s Maryam Dauda during the second quarter in the national championship at Mortgage Matchup Center. (Sarah Stier \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Betts returned to the game two minutes into the second quarter, and the Bruins crushed South Carolina from there. UCLA outscored the Gamecocks 58-41 in the final three quarters and never gave South Carolina any hope. The Gamecocks were led by 14 points from Tessa Johnson, while Agot Makeer chipped in 11 points off the bench.<\/p>\n
For South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, the loss marked her second straight in the championship game. The Gamecocks lost 82-59 last year to UConn, and this year\u2019s loss was even worse, the third-largest margin of defeat in women\u2019s tournament history.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, we got smacked today,\u201d Staley said. \u201cWe got to figure out how we smack back and put ourselves in the position where we\u2019re hoisting the trophy at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
For UCLA, this was a dream realized. The Bruins have been knocking on the door since they reached the Sweet 16 four years ago. Four years later, Close has not only won her first championship but also established herself as one of the premier program builders in the country.<\/p>\n
Last season, UCLA left the Final Four in tears after its 85-51 semifinal loss to UConn. On Sunday, it did again, but this time the tears came as they danced at mid-court, as champions, the first ones in program history and the first Big Ten champions since Purdue won in 1999.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX \u2014 With gold confetti falling from the rafters, Lauren Betts couldn\u2019t hold back the tears. A magical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":856013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[339,7,49,48,56214,666,5481],"class_list":{"0":"post-856012","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-college-sports","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-south-carolina-state-bulldogs","13":"tag-ucla-bruins","14":"tag-womens-college-basketball"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116354821804167466","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}