A celebration of UCLA’s first NCAA women’s basketball championship was held. Wednesday evening at Pauley Pavilion, the third time in two days the team has been honored.
“This group is just so special,” forward Gabriela Jaquez said. “We’re all best friends. The power of friendship and the power of love is so special and so powerful, and that’s what got us to be national champions.”
Following the celebration at Pauley Pavilion, the team headed to the Intuit Dome in Inglewood where it was honored at the Clippers-Oklahoma City Thunder game.
The team was honored at Tuesday’s Lakers game after appearing on the ABC late-night talk show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” earlier in the day. The Empire State Building was lit in blue and gold, UCLA’s school colors, Sunday night.
The Bruins won the championship with a 79-51 victory over South Carolina Sunday in Phoenix, thanks to an unprecedented defensive performance.
“We just knew we were going to win because of all the prep and work that we put in,” center Lauren Betts, who was selected as the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, said after the game. “When we find a way to play together and play selflessly, do what we do, no one can stop us.”
UCLA became the first team to hold its opponent to under 30% shooting overall and under 15% shooting in 3-point shots in an NCAA championship game, men’s or women’s, according to the sports analytics website OptaSTATS.
The game marked the end of the college careers for all five Bruin starters. All of UCLA’s points in the Final Four were scored by seniors or graduate students.
“I said I wanted to find uncommon, courageous women that were willing to make uncommon choices that maybe possibly could yield an uncommon result, and today it did,” Bruins coach Cori Close said in her opening remarks in the postgame news conference while tearing up.
South Carolina made 18 of 62 shots, 29%, including 2 of 15 3-point shots, 13.3%.
The 28-point margin was the third-largest among the 44 NCAA women’s basketball championship games, behind Connecticut’s 93-60 victory over Louisville in 2013 and the Huskies’ 82-51 victory over Syracuse in 2016.
UCLA (37-1) never trailed, and were tied only once, 2-2.
The Bruins completed the season on a school-record 31-game winning streak, including avenging their only loss, defeating Texas, 51-44, in a national semifinal Friday after losing to the Longhorns, 75-65, Nov. 26, in the first game of the Players Era Women’s Championship in Las Vegas.
Sunday’s victory gave UCLA its 126th NCAA team championship, second behind Stanford’s 138. USC is third 115 and Texas fourth with 60. The Bruins’ 1995 softball championship was vacated by the NCAA Committee on Infractions and is not included in the total.
Championships in the Football Bowl Subdivision and Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, which conducted championships through 1982, are not included.
UCLA won the national championship in 1978 when the tournament was conducted by the AIAW. The NCAA began conducting a women’s basketball tournament in 1982.