South Carolina defense faces tall title game test with Betts, powerful UCLA offense
South Carolina veteran Raven Johnson reiterated one of sports’ oldest maxims during her pre-national championship game news conference Saturday.
“Defense wins championships,” Johnson said multiple times.
The old adage rings true for South Carolina, especially after the way it played Friday in the Final Four. The Gamecocks shut down UConn’s high-powered offense with a 62-48 victory that sent USC to Sunday’s national title game.
All that stands in the way of South Carolina and its fourth national championship in program history is UCLA.
“We’re going to try our best to turn them over,” Johnson said. “They’re a really good team also with really good players. We can’t take them for granted. We’re just going to execute what the coaches have for us.”
UCLA is vying for its first national championship win. Head coach Cori Close has taken the Bruins to back-to-back Final Fours (the program’s firsts) and has UCLA playing in the title game for the first time in program history.
South Carolina guard Ta’Niya Latson expects UCLA to come out “hungry” and execute on offense.
“They’re going to do the intangibles,” Latson said. “They’re going to go get 50-50 balls, they’re going to try to outwork you and stuff like that. They play really, really hard. We’ve just got to match that energy, if not exceed that energy. We’ve got to hit with the first punch and play South Carolina basketball.”
UCLA enters the game with the No. 7 offense in the country. The Bruins average 84 points per game and are second in the nation with a team 51.1% shooting clip. Their 36.7% team 3-point shooting mark is 10th best in the country.
“The percentages are real with how they shoot the basketball,” USC head coach Dawn Staley said. “We have to limit the amount of times they get catch-and-shoot opportunities. We want them to two us rather than three us. How we accomplish that hopefully is by running around and being in the proper defensive position, especially our help.”
UCLA is coming into the national title game off a low-scoring rock fight of a Final Four game with Texas. The Bruins, despite a season-low scoring mark, beat the Longhorns 51-44.
Another test with Betts
If South Carolina wants to win another national championship, its defense will have to slow down 6-foot-7 forward Lauren Betts.
The senior has been one of the best players in women’s college hoops this year and could very well be a top five pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft.
Betts has earned no shortage of accolades for her play this year. She was named a first-team All-American by The Associated Press, USBWA and WBCA. She was named the Lisa Leslie Center of the Year for the second straight year by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday.
Staley called Betts the “focal point” for UCLA.
“She brings about a great challenge,” Staley said. “One, because a couple of years ago you could kind of be real physical with her, she would kind of back down a little bit. Now she embraces it, right? Now she welcomes it. She can play off of it so well. You have to make a decision whether you’re going to double her, single cover her, whether you’re going to triple her, then figure out how you’re going to scramble out of that and prioritize who because they can shoot the basketball.”
Betts is UCLA’s leading scorer this year with 17.2 points per game. Her offensive production comes almost exclusively from inside the 3-point line (Betts has just two 3-point attempts this year). She’s shooting 58.2% from the floor.
“We have to shrink the floor on Betts,” Staley said. “She can’t just play in space. They create the space. We’re going to have to try to take some of the space away with how we’re guarding. It’s all predicated on whether or not we’re going to double or run somebody at Betts, and when we will do that and who we do it from.”
The play of South Carolina’s forwards will be crucial to stopping Betts. The 6-foot-6 Madina Okot will likely draw the main matchup against Betts, but the Gamecocks will also need help from star Joyce Edwards to slow her down.
“I feel like it’s up to our posts to beat or eliminate their posts,” Edwards said. “(Okot) has to be super physical. Obviously she’s gonna get more minutes because UConn’s kind of small, UCLA’s a little bigger. Madina is used to battling with bigs that are more traditional. So I feel like she gonna go out there and she’s gonna do great.”
Slowing down the supporting cast
UCLA’s offensive firepower isn’t just limited to Betts. The Bruins have a supporting cast of experienced weapons around her.
“Obviously Betts is going to command a lot of attention, but we can’t forget about the shooters,” Latson said. “… We can’t get too caught up in trying to go double the post and all that stuff. We have to go take care of our men, too.”
UCLA’s top six scorers are all seniors (including Betts) and three of those players are guards.
Kiki Rice is UCLA’s second-leading scorer. The 5-foot-11 guard is averaging 15.1 points per game this year, in addition to 5.9 rebounds and 4.3 assists. UCLA’s sharpshooter, Gianna Kneepkens, is averaging 13.3 points per game and is shooting 42.9% from beyond the arc.
“[Betts] also has really good guards around her, too,” Johnson said. “They’re seniors. They’re very experienced. I think they do a really good job of playing well with each other, playing off each other. I think we have to do a really good job of doing what the coaches have for us, executing the game plan they have. I think it’s a really good game plan.”
It will also be important to slow down other Bruins like Charlisse Leger-Walker (8.3 ppg) and Gabriela Jaquez (13.3 ppg).
“Closing out hard and playing their drive” is the way to stop UCLA’s guards, Latson said. “They like to drive right a lot. So we just got to follow the game plan and try to disrupt as much as possible and play great team defense.”
This story was originally published April 4, 2026 at 8:14 PM.
