Lauren Betts and Madison Booker respectively headline this Closing 4 battle between the Texas Longhorns and the UCLA Bruins.
Neighbors on final 12 months’s Closing 4 bracket, the Texas Longhorns and UCLA Bruins will lastly get to face off on ladies’s basketball’s grandest stage.
The latter half of Phoenix’s Closing 4 proceedings within the 2026 NCAA Ladies’s Basketball Match pits UCLA and Texas, the respective champions of the Sacramento 2 and Fort Price 3, towards one another with potential nationwide title glory on the road. It is set to be an intense conflict of submit prowess, with Westwood’s Lauren Betts doing battle towards Madison Booker from Austin.
Texas has adjusted effectively to the SEC grind and, in actual fact, took the newest convention event from fellow Closing 4 participant South Carolina in its sophomore tour earlier this postseason. The Longhorns are contemporary off a 77-41 thrashing of the Michigan Wolverines within the Elite Eight spherical, leaping out to an early, formidable benefit and by no means wanting again. Booker led the way in which with 19 factors whereas Rori Harmon dished out 13 assists. On the opposite facet, Texas allowed Michigan to make simply 13 photographs, a part of a 23 p.c effort from the sphere.
Closing 4 Preview: Texas Longhorns vs. UCLA Bruins
In search of its second nationwide championship after its triumph in 1986, Texas has reached its fifth Closing 4 and its third during the last 5 years. Since taking down the Gamecocks within the SEC championship, Texas has handily dealt with Missouri State, Oregon, Kentucky, and Michigan on the large bracket, the closest sport in that span being a 22-point win over the Wildcats within the Candy 16.
UCLA has additionally adjusted effectively to a brand new convention, clinching each the Huge Ten common season and convention titles. It needed to stave off a problem in its personal Elite Eight displaying in California’s capital, downing Duke by a 70-58 remaining. Betts overcame some early struggles to submit a 23-point, 10-rebound double-double whereas Angela Dugalić got here off the bench to offer 15 factors and 4 offensive rebounds. The eight-point halftime deficit was simply the second that the Bruins had confronted this season, however they stored Duke off the board for the ultimate six-plus minutes of the third interval to take lasting management.
March Insanity Protection: UConn vs. South Carolina Closing 4 Preview | Fort 1 Area Preview | Fort 3 Area Preview | Sacramento Area 2 Preview | Sacramento Area 4 Preview
Extra NCAA: Audi Crooks Enters Switch Portal | One other Double Closing For UConn? | High NCAA Upset of All-Time | Azzi Fudd Indicators with Jordan Model
Can UCLA Win Its First Ring?
That is the Bruins‘ second displaying within the Closing after making their maiden voyage final 12 months, and so they’re hoping to atone for an 85-51 defeat by the hands of the eventual champion UConn Huskies, who likewise returned to the nationwide semifinals. UCLA took care of its event enterprise earlier than Duke’s devilish scare, defeating Cal Baptist, Oklahoma State, and Minnesota by broad margins within the debut trio.
This would be the sixteenth all-time assembly between Texas and UCLA and the second this season. The Bruins enter the Closing 4 fracas on a 29-game profitable streak, and the one blemish that retains them out of the sisterhood of perfection with UConn is a 76-65 defeat to those very Longhorns in the course of the Gamers Period Pageant in Las Vegas. Harmon broke free for 26 factors whereas Booker inched towards a triple-double with 16 factors, seven boards, and 5 helpers. Gianna Kneepkens and Kiki Rice had 17 every in defeat, accounting for simply over half of UCLA’s tallies.
Texas and UCLA have additionally squared off within the NCAA Match on 5 prior events, with the latter profitable three to this point. The latest get-together got here within the 2021 Candy 16, the place Celeste Taylor outdueled Michaela Onyenwere in entrance of a supportive San Antonio crowd to earn a 71-62 victory.
Who: (1) Texas Longhorns (35-3, 13-3 SEC) vs. (1) UCLA Bruins (35-1, 18-0 Huge Ten)What: NCAA Ladies’s Basketball Match Nationwide Semifinal/Closing FourWhere: Mortgage Matchup Middle, Phoenix, AZWhen: Friday, 9:30 p.m. ET, ESPNWager: TEX -1.5 (O/U 133.5)
Jordan Lee takes all of it the way in which as 1-seed Texas holds an early lead on 2-seed Michigan 💨
Watch the Elite Eight now on ESPN and the ESPN App! pic.twitter.com/18APTDuSLL
— ESPN (@espn) March 30, 2026
Texas Longhorn to Watch: Jordan Lee
Texas clearly retains issues rolling with Booker and Harmon main the way in which, however particular consideration ought to be devoted to the sophomore Jordan Lee. She was a non-factor offensively within the blowout win over Michigan, however she performed a robust half in limiting the Wolverines‘ capturing on protection. Lee has a first-rate alternative to get open with the Bruins manning the inside with Betts and Gabriela Jaquez, and he or she has the proper facilitator in Harmon on her facet. She will additionally arrange alternatives on the fastbreak, standing as one in all 5 Longhorns averaging no less than a steal per sport.
Angela Dugalić Scoring Breakdown vs Duke – Elite 8: (PTS)
• Spot Up: 4• OREB (Putbacks): 7 💪🏼• Submit-Up: 4
– 15 factors on 55.8% TS- As much as 60.7% on Submit-Ups (1.069 PPP) this season- As much as 83.3% on OREBs (1.586 PPP) this season- GAME. CHANGER. 😤pic.twitter.com/DwlbHjKmLy
— Conrado Pascual (@CP3_777) March 29, 2026
UCLA Bruin to Watch: Angela Dugalić
UCLA dealt with itself pretty effectively within the first go-around with the Longhorns, although Dugalić struggled to carry out off the bench because the one girl the Bruins inserted in aid. The depth star has since recovered to be one of many high sixth-women within the nation, notably posting a 13-point, 10-rebound double-double within the Candy 16 win over Minnesota. Again in November, Dugalić was maybe nonetheless adjusting to her position after serving as a starter on final 12 months’s Closing 4 trek. Now totally entrenched in her position, Dugalić is a power to be reckoned with in all areas of the ground.
They Mentioned It
“I believe now we have a extremely good likelihood at profitable [the whole thing]. You may look all the way in which down our roster, and also you see anyone who can present, anyone who can are available in and do one thing at any level, at any given second your identify known as. I’ve religion that everyone on the bench can are available in and supply. So, yeah, I believe now we have a extremely good likelihood.”—Texas ahead Justice Carlton (h/t Cedric Golden, Austin American-Statesman)
„I used to be mad and I simply didn’t perceive how that would occur. However, I imply, I believe for me it simply riles me up. It’s nothing, like, not getting mad at any particular person. It was a group loss. I believe, for me, it was simply, how can I be higher going into subsequent 12 months, and the way can I push this group so we will get there once more and have that chance.”—Betts on why she repeatedly watched final 12 months’s Closing 4 loss towards UConn (h/t Ben Bolch, New York Submit)
Closing 4 Prediction
What Texas has completed beneath Vic Schaefer cannot be neglected, and that features a Thanksgiving feast earned towards the Bruins in Las Vegas. However UCLA simply feels too deep and able to taking issues just a little too personally to let shortcomings in Sin Metropolis go unpunished. Behind the inside prowess of Betts and Kneepkins and Rice’s dealing with of enterprise on the high of the important thing, the Bruins bear down and power themselves into a possible rematch with the Huskies, one other little bit of unfinished enterprise that has haunted the Westwood basketball amenities.
UCLA 65, Texas 61
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
