UCLA Wins 1st NCAA National Women’s Basketball Title

One by one, UCLA women’s basketball coach Cori Close substituted out her starting lineup in the final minutes of her team’s national championship victory Sunday.

Point guard Kiki Rice, a senior.

All-American center Lauren Betts, a senior.

Gabriela Jaquez, a senior.

Gianna Kneepkens, a graduate student.

No other team in college basketball this season, men’s or women’s, designed its roster to be as veteran-dependent as UCLA, whose 12-player roster featured eight who were either seniors or graduate students. During the NCAA Tournament, Close’s rotation of playing time featured almost exclusively her oldest players. Those choices added pressure to Sunday’s national title showdown against South Carolina — because if the Bruins didn’t capitalize and win a title now, before virtually their entire rotation departed for the WNBA, there might not be a better chance in the future.

Instead, UCLA routed South Carolina 79-51 to win the program’s first NCAA title in a fashion that may never happen again. The Bruins’ players, in their final year of eligibility, scored all 130 of the team’s Final Four points, and 170 consecutive points in all dating to earlier in the tournament.

Source: NBC News