UCLA Has Improved in One Major Way in This Final Four: It Can Play Ugly

Don’t be fooled by the Bruins’ sweet dispositions. This team can be tough and gritty when it needs to be, as shown in a 51–44 slog against Texas on Friday.

UCLA star Lauren Betts had a game-high 16 points while Texas’s Madison Booker (left) was held to the worst shooting night of her career. | Jordan Naholowaa Murph/Sports Illustrated

PHOENIX — Lauren Betts watched and rewatched UCLA in the 2025 Final Four. She sat down to watch that 85–51 loss to UConn in its entirety once, twice, 10 times, she later estimated. It never felt any easier for her to grasp. 

“Why did I do that?” Betts said last week. “Because I was mad. And I just didn’t understand how that could happen.”

If the Bruins star center rewatches the 2026 Final Four, she will not have much to understand. This one made complete sense: UCLA led nearly the entire time against Texas in the Final Four on Friday, and while this group bent, it never broke. The 51-44 game was exactly the kind of ugly defensive grind implied by the score. It was not the sort of game that invites a rewatch or 10. Bruins coach Cori Close used her opening statement after reaching the NCAA national championship for the first time to say that she was sorry: “I wanted to apologize to all the fans for the rugby match, and the 23 turnovers,” Close said. But if a rewatch here would not be pretty, it would at least be illustrative. This UCLA team is tougher and smarter than it was last year. And that showed in every possession against Texas.

The Bruins were able to make sure they made the most of what they had in front of them. | Jordan Naholowaa Murph/Sports Illustrated

This UCLA roster takes after its coach in some ways, and that means a lot of time spent talking about togetherness and spirit and heart. Close has a seemingly endless dictionary of inspirational quotes and motivational phrases. She uses them so often that her players can recite them freely. (A few that have come up in the last week: “You can’t outperform your self-image.” “Awareness precedes behavior change.” “The more together team wins.”) Even when they are not quoting their coach, they adopt a similarly earnest, wholesome tone. Asked what they would do approaching the national championship, Bruins senior Gabriela Jaquez said, “Enjoy it with each other, and enjoy that we have two more days with each other. I think that’s what we’re most excited about, just spending more time together, playing another game together.” There is no Division I team more effusive about love and sisterhood.

But the Bruins have shown they can play ugly when they have to. And this one was ugly. “I felt guilty walking off the floor because it was not pretty in any way, shape or form,” Close said. The halftime score was 20–17. Read those numbers again. 20 to 17. These are two programs that average more than 80 points a game. Neither could find any sort of flow here. 

That was partially a product of strong defense. UCLA pushed Texas star Madison Booker away from her usual midrange spots, and the result was the roughest game of her career, 3-of-23 shooting. But it was partially a product of two offenses that found themselves devolving into disjointed slogs. “I don’t have an explanation for it,” Texas coach Vic Schaefer said. “I mean, they got after us pretty good, just like we got after them.” Amid that joint discombobulation, UCLA dug in and rose above.

Betts led all scorers with 16 points. She did not get her usual number of touches in the paint but maximized what she did get: The senior finished 7-of-10 from the field. UCLA’s cast of guards piled in just enough to keep the group afloat, with 11 points for Kiki Rice, and 10 apiece for Jaquez and Gianna Kneepkens. UCLA took only 44 shots to Texas’s 65. (Close was not kidding when she apologized for those 23 turnovers.) But the Bruins were able to make sure they made the most of what they had in front of them. 

“It’s really all about toughness at this point,” Close said. “And finding a way to make a winning play, even if it’s a winning play you wouldn’t have predicted or chosen.”

"LAUREN BETTS WITH A BLOCK FOR THE AGES!" 😤 pic.twitter.com/3owNab8Cwc

— espnW (@espnW) April 4, 2026

The winning play on this one was not a bucket. It was a block. UCLA was up by just three with under 30 seconds to play. Booker grabbed a rebound and sprinted down for an opportunity at a tying possession. She tried driving to the rim for a layup. Yet right in front of her was Betts, who delivered a thunderous, game-sealing block.

Betts’s description of the play was as understated and polite as commentary on a massive block could possibly be. “As soon as I saw her getting downhill, I’m like, All right, please block this, just don’t let her score,” the center said on the postgame dais with a smile. Perhaps it felt a little incongruous. But it was perfectly fitting here. UCLA can sound almost unbelievably sweet. Yet it can play almost unbelievably tough. 

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