UCLA blasts South Carolina, wins first national title with an exclamation point

The UCLA Bruins are this year’s national champions in emphatic fashion.

While much of the women’s college basketball world was focused on the storylines from the heavyweight fight between South Carolina and UConn, which included high-profile fireworks between legendary coaches Geno Auriemma and Dawn Staley, UCLA came into Sunday night’s game and did what it did all season – dominated.

The Bruins beat South Carolina 79-51 on Sunday in the national title game, handing South Carolina their second-worst loss in NCAA Tournament history.

UCLA never trailed in the game and led by double digits for the majority of the contest after opening up a double-digit lead in just the first quarter. The dominant, 28-point win marked the third-largest in a Division I women’s championship final.

Needless to say, it was a dominant showing that put an exclamation point on a dominant season for UCLA and head coach Cori Close, capping off the team’s 31st consecutive victory.

“It’s immeasurably more than I could ask or imagine,” Close said after the game via ESPN. “It’s beyond my wildest dreams.”

And truthfully, the game went exactly how Close expected it to go, with UCLA dominating on the interior offensively and playing suffocating defense on the other end.

“I really did expect us to win today,” Close said. “I thought about it several times. I’m like, ‘We’re going to win.’ I felt very peaceful all day. It wasn’t about whether or not we got the W. I wanted us to be able to play our best when our best was needed. We delivered on that.”

UCLA held South Carolina to just 18-for-62 from the field with the team’s three best players – Joyce Edwards, Ta’Niya Latson and Raven Johnson – finishing just 15 combined points on 5-of-22 shooting.

“We got whooped. Not beat. We got whooped,” Johnson said bluntly after the game.

However, despite the disappointing end to the game, Staley took the loss in stride.

“Although we didn’t win, I can swallow it because we lost to a really good human being and a good team that represents women’s basketball well,” Staley said after the loss.

Despite all the headlines from Staley and Auriemma throughout the weekend, it was UCLA that stole the show with a well-deserved and absolutely dominant performance.