Gabriela Jaquez and the UCLA women’s basketball team aren’t ready to stop dancing — not by a long shot.
The Bruins are back under the Final Four spotlight for the second year in a row, advancing to the penultimate round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament with a 70-58 comeback win over Duke on March 29 in Sacramento. It is the second Final Four appearance in program history after UCLA was eliminated from the tournament last year by UConn.
For a team laden with seniors, Jaquez included, the prospect of advancing to a first NCAA championship game means more than making history. It is about keeping the close-knit core that delivered UCLA its winningest season ever together for one more game.
“We’re just fighting for more days with each other at the end of the day,” the former Camarillo High basketball star told reporters at an April 2 news conference.
A rematch with fellow No. 1 seed Texas (35-3), the only team that managed to take UCLA (35-1) down all season, looms on Friday, April 3, at 6:30 p.m. at Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix. The Bruins were defeated 76-65 by Texas in the Players Era Tournament semifinals on Nov. 26, 2025.
Jaquez struggled against in their last meeting, going 2 of 4 from the field for just four points — her lowest scoring total of the season. But the loss also seemed to spark something in her.
Just two games later, she erupted for a season-high 29 points in a 99-77 rout of Tennessee. It was the launch point for a season of incredible growth for the senior.
“For us, just like we’ve been saying, coming out ready to dominate. I think that’s the big one,” Jaquez told reporters of the team’s mindset going into the rematch. “Coming out ready to play. Coming out to get every loose ball, creating catches, playing as a team. Just play like we know how to play. Play confident.”
Learning from losses is something the Bruins have had very few opportunities to do in recent seasons, but after falling to UConn by 34 points in last year’s Final Four, UCLA head coach Cori Close said she has taken the time to stop and appreciate this talented group.
“One of my biggest regrets of last spring is, I didn’t celebrate them enough. I didn’t find ways to go, ‘This team was the most, at that point, successful team since 1978-79,’ ” Close told reporters on April 2. “We can actually use that as such a great teacher for where we want to go this year.”
ESPN will carry coverage of the Final Four, with No. 1 UConn and No. 1 South Carolina facing off at 4 p.m. and the No. 1 UCLA taking on No. 1 Texas at 6:30 p.m., or 30 minutes following the conclusion of the first game.
The national championship game will be Sunday at 12:30 p.m.
Dominic Massimino is a staff writer for The Star. He can be reached at dominic.massimino@vcstar.com. For more coverage, follow @vcsdominic on Twitter and Instagram.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Gabriela Jaquez says UCLA must be ‘ready to dominate’ in Final Four
