WESTWOOD — UCLA graduate and national champion Lauren Betts added one more accolade to her historic 2025-26 campaign with the Bruins.

The women’s basketball standout was announced as the 2026 Big Ten Conference Female Athlete of the Year on Wednesday.

The 6-foot-7 Washington Mystics center led UCLA to the program’s first NCAA title this past season. She averaged 17.1 points and 8.8 rebounds per game while shooting 58.2% from the field before being selected fourth overall in the WNBA draft.

Betts joined former Riverside Poly High and USC legend Sheryl Miller and Breanna Stewart of Connecticut as one of only three players in history to record at least 600 points, 300 rebounds, 100 assists and 75 blocked shots in a single season.

Betts’ historic campaign included becoming the first player to win the Big Ten Player of the Year and Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year awards in the same season.

UCLA finished 37-1 and routed second-seeded Iowa, 96-45, in the Big Ten Tournament championship game – the largest margin of victory in the event’s history.

The success of the Bruins was a boost for women’s basketball as well. UCLA’s 79-51 blowout of traditional power South Carolina in the national championship game drew 9.9 million viewers – making it the third most-watched women’s championship game.

Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who led his team to a national title and won the Heisman Trophy, was named the Big Ten’s Male Athlete of the Year.

UCLA women’s basketball coach Cori Close gets new contract

UCLA’s national title celebration shows Bruins are ‘all trailblazers in a different lane’