UCLA blows out South Carolina for first women's NCAA title - ESPN

PHOENIX — This one was for coach Cori Close and Lauren Betts and all the current players wearing UCLA on their jerseys.

But it was also for Ann Meyers Drysdale and Denise Curry and John Wooden, and every Bruin who poured into what would become the first NCAA championship in UCLA women's basketball history.

The Bruins beat South Carolina 79-51 on Sunday in the national title game, and they did it the same way they have won all season — with a dominating inside presence, an unselfish offensive approach and a suffocating defense that handed the Gamecocks their second-worst loss in NCAA tournament history.

The 28-point margin of victory was the third-largest in a Division I women's championship final.

«It's immeasurably more than I could ask or imagine,» Close said. «It's beyond my wildest dreams.»

UCLA never trailed, opening a double-digit lead at the end of the first quarter and never looking back in its 31st straight win to make history. Betts was named the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player after the game.

In her 15th season at the helm, Close pulled off what many didn't believe was possible at one of the most storied basketball programs in the country. UCLA last won a national title in women's basketball in 1978 in the AIAW, when Meyers Drysdale and Curry led the way. Wooden won 10 titles for the men and set a standard that other coaches on the Los Angeles campus wanted to follow.

Indeed, as a 22-year-old assistant at UCLA, Close and Wooden began what would become a deep and close relationship. She credits him to this day for helping her become the coach she is now. With all those lessons, Close guided a team on a mission Sunday — to avenge a poor Final Four appearance a year ago, with a senior-laden group determined