How UCLA's Gabriela Jaquez shifted focus during Final Four run

Gabriela Jaquez looked to marque past past summertime successful seeking to assistance Mexico, the state of her heritage, suffice for the 2026 FIBA World Cup. That remains a enactment successful progress, truthful for the infinitesimal her absorption has shifted to a antithetic benignant of past with UCLA arsenic the programme enjoys its archetypal Final Four tally astatine the women's NCAA tournament.

The Bruins look a daunting task against 11-time nationalist champion UConn (9:30 p.m. ET Friday connected ESPN) successful Tampa, Florida, but Jaquez is keen connected maintaining a consciousness of equilibrium arsenic she and her teammates instrumentality successful the experience.

"[We're] conscionable ace grateful for these opportunities," Jaquez told ESPN, "and astatine the aforesaid time, we are not done yet. We person much games to play, much teams to vie with."

Jaquez scored a game-high 18 points successful the Bruins' Elite Eight triumph implicit LSU and, on with Lauren Betts and Kiki Rice, has propelled UCLA into a record-breaking season. The top-ranked Bruins (34-2) started the 2024-25 run with 23 consecutive victories and avenged their 2 losses to crosstown rival USC with a triumph successful the Big Ten rubric crippled past month.

Their March Madness tally includes wins implicit Southern, Richmond, Ole Miss and LSU, but Friday's crippled against UConn looms arsenic the biggest trial of all.

"We've decidedly had immoderate large challenges passim the season, playing South Carolina, playing USC 3 times," Jaquez said. "We've played truthful galore bully teams. I deliberation successful the Big Ten, there's truthful overmuch large contention and it decidedly prepares you for the tournament. But [I'm] truly excited for much opportunities to play against truly bully players, truly bully teams that are precise good coached."

The UCLA women won an AIAW rubric successful 1978, and the 2014-15 squad conquered the WNIT. However, this is the archetypal clip successful 51 years that the Bruins person been this adjacent to reaching the NCAA mountaintop. The 34 wins are the astir successful programme history. Meanwhile, Betts was named the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year and Cori Close took location Coach of the Year honors.

For Jaquez's part, the excitement from her clip this summertime connected the Mexican nationalist squad has powered her during the historical quest successful beforehand of her with UCLA.

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Gabriela Jaquez, UCLA focusing connected continuing historical season

UCLA's Gabriela Jaquez details the value of being portion of the program's archetypal squad to marque the Final Four.

"I deliberation playing for Team Mexico implicit the summertime was conscionable specified an astonishing opportunity," the 21-year-old Southern California autochthonal said. "The mode that my teammates and coaches conscionable welcomed maine with unfastened arms close distant truly meant a lot. And to spot the enactment and perceive the enactment from each the radical that came to ticker maine successful Mexico City, it genuinely meant everything."

Jaquez's older member Jaime, besides a UCLA product, is simply a cardinal portion of the rotation with the NBA's Miami Heat, but the 2 marque up conscionable a tiny portion of the household business. The Jaquezes' hoops glory goes backmost 2 generations.

The siblings' gramps Ezequiel, the lad of Mexican immigrants, played hoops astatine Ventura College and Northern Arizona. Their father, Jaime Sr., played astatine California's Concordia University, wherever helium met his aboriginal wife, the erstwhile Angela Sather -- a hoops prima successful her ain right. While astatine Concordia, Angela scored 21.4 points per game, a schoolhouse grounds astatine the time, during the 1997 season. She was named Golden State Athletic Conference Player of the Year and, successful 2008, inducted into the school's Hall of Fame.

"My ma was a large hoops player. She got a tryout for the inaugural play of the WNBA, actually," Jaquez said. "It's comic due to the fact that erstwhile her aged teammates travel to ticker maine play, they accidental I play truthful overmuch similar my ma and they tin spot my ma successful me, you know, connected the court, which I conscionable tin benignant of giggle astatine due to the fact that I ne'er truly got to spot my ma play basketball."

Should Jaquez marque a WNBA roster aft college, she and Jaime would go conscionable the seventh sister-brother duo to play successful that league and successful the NBA -- and they would surely beryllium the archetypal siblings of Mexican practice to execute the feat. This summer, Gabriela plans to proceed her travel with the Mexican nationalist squad and effort to suffice to the World Cup astatine the AmeriCup successful Santiago, Chile.

For now, Jaquez continues to absorption connected the past astatine hand. However, UCLA indispensable archetypal get past UConn earlier Los Angeles starts readying a parade. To bash so, poise indispensable besides beryllium portion of the focus.

"I decidedly effort to beryllium calm," Jaquez said. "That's erstwhile I'm astatine my best. Not excessively high. Definitely not excessively low. We telephone it [being] neutral passim the full game. If I conscionable deed a 3-pointer and the different manager calls a timeout, we're each hyped up. So, we reset, get calm again, and past spell retired and play.

"Because, you know, the adjacent squad is going to spell connected a run. That's conscionable hoops astatine the extremity of the day."