PHOENIX — Lauren Betts had already proven, over the course of four years and two conferences, that she was the best player in the country. Sunday night at Footprint Center, she proved it one final time on the largest stage the sport offers, scoring 26 points on 10-of-15 shooting and pulling down 14 rebounds as UCLA defeated South Carolina 72–64 to win the program's first NCAA national championship.
The Bruins did not flinch. South Carolina, which has reached the national championship game in four of the last five seasons under Dawn Staley, came in with the kind of pedigree that makes opponents second-guess themselves in close games. UCLA had never been here before. None of that appeared to matter. The Bruins led by as many as 12 in the second half, absorbed a 9-2 South Carolina run that cut the deficit to five, and then responded with back-to-back baskets from Kiki Rice and Gianna Kneepkens to put the game away.
Rice, who has been the team's most reliable perimeter creator all season, finished with 14 points and seven assists and made the decisive reads in the final four minutes that kept the Gamecocks from getting within striking distance. Kneepkens knocked down three of UCLA's six three-pointers on the night and scored 18 points in what she described after the game as the best she has felt shooting all season. Gabriela Jaquez, defending Staley's top wing option, held her to nine points on 4-of-13 shooting.
"I don't know if there's a word for what this feels like," Betts said at the postgame podium, holding the net she had just cut down. "We've been working for this for a long time. Every one of us. This is for everyone who believed in this program before tonight."
Head coach Cori Close, who has built UCLA into a consistent top-10 program over more than a decade, became the first Bruins women's basketball coach to cut down the nets at a national championship. She was composed through the final minutes and visibly overcome after the final buzzer, embracing her seniors on the court for several minutes before accepting any interview requests. The four seniors, Betts, Rice, Kneepkens, and Jaquez, leave Westwood with a conference title, a Final Four, and now a national championship, a legacy that will define the program's standard for years.
South Carolina finished 35-3, its losses all to top-10 programs, and Staley was gracious in defeat. "They were better tonight," she said at the podium. "Lauren Betts is a generational player. You can't take anything away from what UCLA did this season." The sentiment was accurate. From a 9-0 start in Big Ten play through a conference championship and a run through the tournament in which they were never seriously threatened until the final minutes of the title game, these Bruins were the best team in the country. Sunday confirmed it officially.
The trophy ceremony ended just before midnight Phoenix time. By then, Westwood was already celebrating.