No. 1 seed UCLA women’s basketball (36-1, 18-0 Big Ten) defeated No. 1 seed Texas (35-4, 13-3 SEC) 51-44 Friday night at Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix to advance to its first national title game in the NCAA era. The Bruins shot just 40.9% from the field in their lowest-scoring outing of the 2025-2026 season to earn a spot in the championship game.

Daily Bruin assistant Sports editor Willa Campion gives her four main takeaways from UCLA’s Final Four victory.

Bett on it.

If there were one moment to remember from Friday’s Final Four bout, it was senior center Lauren Betts smacking down forward Madison Booker’s layup attempt with less than a minute left in the game.

Betts’ denial marked her third block of the game and proved to be a testament to her individual defensive efforts, but also her team’s, which limited Texas’s leading scorer to just six points.

In fact, Booker’s 3-for-23 shooting night was her worst performance of the season and an anomaly for the Small Forward of the Year, who averages a 50.8% clip from the field.

While the Bruins stifled their opponent’s X-factor, the Longhorns struggled to do the same.

Betts, who maintained her role as an anchor on the box score and in the paint, garnered a team-high 16 points and 11 rebounds, marking her twenty-first double-double of the season and her second consecutive in NCAA Tournament play.

When in doubt, turn it over.

The most glaring blemish on UCLA’s stat sheet Friday night was the 23 that sat at the bottom of the turnover column.

While 27.3% and 30.8% field goal shooting clips in the second and third quarters, respectively, prolonged scoring droughts, mistimed or ill-decided passes squandered opportunities for UCLA to extend its lead and allowed Texas to remain a nagging threat.

The Bruins nearly racked up their season turnover average of 12.7 by the break, and the team seemingly failed to find more success in the second half.

A struggle on the inbound pass to combat Texas’ full-court press manifested itself in multiple possessions stopped before they even began.

Senior guard Gabriela Jaquez’s attempt to heave the ball half court on an inbound in the fourth quarter exemplified how much UCLA struggled to get open against Texas’ press.

While the dual-sport athlete’s softball skills served her well on the field at Easton Stadium, the aggressive lob proved ineffective on the court at the Mortgage Matchup Center and resulted in yet another forfeited possession in a game with a single-digit point differential.

On a team that boasts four projected first round WNBA Draft picks, it can be any player’s night.

But that is only made possible with effective facilitation.

A win is a win.

Even if Friday night was far from the performance coach Cori Close wanted, making the program’s first championship appearance in the March Madness era is likely the story that will settle in the collective memories.

And there was a plethora of smaller wins within the Bruins’ victory, including a strong first quarter start.

UCLA has emphasized the importance of establishing a dominant energy from the get-go, something that the Bruins have struggled to do at times across the season, including in their sole season loss to the Longhorns.

Bolting out to 14 points — which Texas only managed to double by the end of the third quarter — against a team many still believed held the edge over them sets the precedent the Bruins need to maintain entering the championship game.

Many thought that Sunday’s contest would feature a rematch of last year’s national semifinal between UCLA and UConn, a blowout loss for the former that signaled the worst deficit in an NCAA semifinal in women’s basketball history.

Amid the fanfare over the Bruins’ win and the chaos surrounding the ending of the Huskies and Gamecocks’ semifinal, the lingering sting of last year’s season-ending affair has subsided.

However, Friday’s performance was likely still not what UCLA wanted Final Four crowds to see.

But regardless, double-digit scoring from senior guard Kiki Rice and Jaquez – who were limited to just eight and zero points, respectively, in last year’s NCAA semifinal – represented the improvement of a Bruin squad whose five graduating starters have one last opportunity to cement their collegiate legacies, forever.

One for the history books.

The Bruins will be competing for their first NCAA title and their second national championship since 1978, when a squad led by Ann Meyers Drysdale won the AIAW championship game.

At one point, it looked like the Bruins’ 2025-2026 campaign was going to be defined by their November loss to the Longhorns.

Even as UCLA built an undefeated conference record and vanquished teams by unheard of numbers, questions about “the Texas loss” boiled to the surface.

Now, the Bruins’ season has a new mile marker – one that officially puts discussion around their early-year stumble to bed.

And potentially after Sunday, UCLA’s season will not be defined by any loss or win over Texas, but one final victory.

A spot in the rafters of Pauley Pavilion is already reserved for this iteration of UCLA women’s basketball. What exactly the banner will read comes down to the Bruins’ performance Sunday.