The National Championship game for the 2026 NCAA Women’s D1 March Madness Tournament was on April 5, 2026. The University of South Carolina Gamecocks played the UCLA Bruins at the Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix, Arizona. UCLA’s dominant Championship game performance earned them their first NCAA Women’s Basketball title in team history, while also being the first title for UCLA head coach Cori Close, who had been in her 15th season in charge of the Bruins.

Coming into the game, analysts had South Carolina favored over the Bruins. However, the Bruins, led by long-time head coach Cori Close, dominated the game and never trailed, beating the Gamecocks 79-51. Senior Gabriela Jaquez led the bruins to the win, finishing with 21 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists. 

Both the Bruins and Gamecocks had terrific regular seasons, with the Bruins only losing one game to the Texas Longhorns back in November. South Carolina had only lost three games coming into the Championship, and both teams had very dominant runs throughout the March Madness tournament. 

Millikan Girls basketball coach Lorene Morgan was asked if anything stood out to her in the game and said, “UCLA’s post(As a post player, you are an inside operator with the main objective to be a force within the key) player Lauren Betts was MVP. However, as often as they passed to her, the team was very balanced in how they played. They had different players step up.” 

UCLA women’s basketball also made history by having five of their players selected in the first round of the WNBA Draft. 

In the path to the Championship, South Carolina eased their way through the tournament, blowing out Southern University, USC, Oklahoma, TCU and getting a big win over defending Women’s Champions UConn in the Final Four. For UCLA, their path to the Championship was just as easy, gliding through their match ups against Cal Baptist, Oklahoma State, Minnesota, Duke, and finally getting their revenge on Texas in the Final Four.