South Carolina 2-6 UCLA, 7:29 1st quarter
Charlisse Leger-Walker drains from 15 feet out. Then UCLA get a stop, come back down the floor, feed Betts down low and she hits, off the glass again! She’s shooting fish in a barrel. This is what the Bruins need to do to win.
The 2026 Women's National Championship game is off and running!
Betts wins the tip, comes down, gets the ball in the paint, back to the basket, turns, fires, and hits off the glass! Good start there!
National Anthem
It’s being sung by Kahara Hodges, an alum Arizona State. She’s done it before, most notably at the 2024 men’s Final Four. It’s a slower rendition. Serviceable, but not really my taste. Not that it was bad, but it did need a bit more pace. I’ll give it a 7/10.
Now the lineups are being announced, which means tip-off is imminent. Your patience shall be rewarded.
Stick with us!
How they got here
Here is how South Carolina beat UCONN.
And here’s highlights of of UCLA’s victory over Texas.
Agot Makeer
When it comes to South Carolina, there’s always generation next knocking on the door, and on this team it’s Agot Makeer. The freshman averaged roughly seven points a game during the regular season, and in this tournament, she’s putting up 15ppg. That’s formidable off the bench on a SC team that is noticeably deeper than UCLA.
She’s one to watch.
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Can UCLA upset the Gamecocks?
Yes, they can. It will take a prolific performance from two-time All American center Lauren Betts, who plays her last game as a Bruin today. She’ll need to summon the type of performance she game in the second round v Oklahoma State where she poured in 35 points while providing her usual brand of suffocating defense and hard work on the boards. UCLA isn’t a one woman team of course, but as the LA Times wrote:
“UCLA is at its best when the offense runs through Betts, but not solely with passes into the low post. When she sets screens on the perimeter and rolls to the basket or passes from a variety of spots on the court, it overloads defenses and opens up potent offensive options for the Bruins.”
Even if that happens, it’s pretty scary that Staley’s Gamecocks, which are deeper on the bench than UCLA, held UCONN to just 48 points in their semifinal game. They’re led by forward Joyce Edwards, who averages nearly 20ppg, and Raven Johsnon, who averages over five assists per game and 10 points.
One last note: since the start of the tournament, UCLA’s point total has shrunk with every game, starting with 96 against CBU and then winning with just 51 points v Texas. And you can say the same about SC; as the competition got stiffer the point totals dropped, beginning with 103 v SOU in their first round, then beating UCONN with just 62.
South Carolina are favored by 3.5 points.
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About last night
OK, it wasn’t last night, it was actually two nights ago when things got a bit testy between Geno Auriemma and Dawn Staley, with a post-game altercation that, no question, took away from the actual coverage of the game itself. As it turns out, it was all about some silly handshaking, with Auriemma putting Staley on blast in the final moments of UCONN’s defeat for the SC coach allegedly not shaking his hand before the game. It was enough of an incident that referees and assistant coaches
After a relaxing nights sleep, Auriemma, admitted to throwing his toys out of the pram and apologized sincerely for the altercation and kind of ruining the night for everyone. Staley said she’d address the incident at a later date, choosing wisely to focus on winning the national title, which is sensible.
Anyway, in case you missed it, here’s the drama.
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Hello...
…and welcome to our live, rolling coverage of the women’s NCAA basketball championship game between the Bruins of UCLA and the Gamecocks of South Carolina. It’s a blockbuster match-up between two of the best coaches, Dawn Staley and Cori Close, and two top seeds that have made it through to the final in Phoenix, Arizona.
Both teams are coming off lower scoring, defensive games, which, let’s be honest, were of the choppy, less entertaining type, which can happen when the stakes get high and bodies tense up. UCLA turned the ball over 23 times against Texas, a team that got 21 more shots than the Bruins, who still managed to prevail as they bid for their first national women’s basketball title. Needless to say, it was hardly a showcase of the nation’s leading offense.
Meanwhile, the Gamecocks were also in a war, with two of the most overpowering coaches in all of sports, Staley and Geno Auriemma leading South Carolina against UCONN. The Huskies suffered their first loss in 54 games at precisely the wrong time as both teams shot poorly as SC avenged their 82-59 rout by UCONN a year ago in the national championship game.
Now UCLA and SC meet for the third time in the past five years. The last time they met back in November of 2024, the Bruins ended the Gamecocks’ 43-game winning streak during a 77-62 win in LA. The Gamecocks won two years earlier. And now, it’s the rubber match of all rubber matches, a third meeting for all the marbles and a pretty underwhelming partially wooden, partially glass, plaque/trophy.
We’ll have all the action for you, just as it happens. Do you have a prediction, or some thoughts on what may or may not happen? Write in and join our coverage! Tip-off is about 330PM on the east coast of the United States, and 830PM in the UK.
We’ll have more to come shortly – stick with us!
David will be here shortly. In the meantime, catch up on what happened in Friday night’s Final Four games.
South Carolina’s 62-48 victory over UConn in the first semi-final ended the Huskies’ 54-game winning streak. The Gamecocks’ defense silenced UConn’s All-American duo of Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd and exacted revenge for last year’s national championship game.
Much of the conversation about that game centered on the heated sideline exchange between UConn coach Geno Auriemma and South Carolina coach Dawn Staley in the final seconds. Auriemma, who had used one of his mid-game interviews with ESPN to deliver a fiery diatribe about officiating, skipped the post-game handshake after launching a tirade of words in Staley’s direction. He apologized on Saturday for his “uncalled for” behavior, which he said was sparked by a disagreement over the pre-game handshake. Staley said she would address the incident at a later point and wanted to keep her focus on the chase for a national title.
In the second semi-final, UCLA held off a late surge by Texas for a 51-44 win, securing a berth in the national championship game for the first time in program history. Star Bruins center Lauren Betts made a huge block on a layup attempt by fellow All-American Madison Booker in the final minutes to keep the Longhorns at bay.
UCLA are 34-1. South Carolina are 36-3. The teams have met five times, with
