SACRAMENTO -- This is what Angela Dugalic stayed an extra year for.
The graduate forward has been steady and dependable for the Bruins all season, not just in her production on the court, but in the energy and veteran leadership she brought to the team. UCLA needed both of those qualities more on Sunday than ever before. She brought a seriousness to the court and her determination to reach the top shines through clearly.
"I knew that going into my fifth and sixth year that this team is so capable of winning a national championship," Dugalic said. "I think this year we just have an approach of.. This is a business trip at the end of the day, and we have a job to do, and that's to win a national championship."
UCLA Bruins forward Angela Dugalić (32) and center Lauren Betts (51) celebrate after defeating the Duke Blue Devils in an Elite Eight game in the Sacramento Regional 4 of the women's 2026 NCAA Tournament at the Golden 1 Center.
Ed Szczepanski-Imagn Images
UCLA Bruins forward Angela Dugalić (32) and center Lauren Betts (51) celebrate after defeating the Duke Blue Devils in an Elite Eight game in the Sacramento Regional 4 of the women's 2026 NCAA Tournament at the Golden 1 Center.
That climb almost came to an end against Duke in the Elite Eight. The Blue Devils were riding the momentum of upsetting LSU the game before and they planned on doing it again against UCLA. They came in hot to start the game with an oppressive defense and an offense that couldn't seem to miss a shot.
For the first time this season, the Bruins looked panicked.
The paint, which had normally been a safe-haven for UCLA all season, was crowded with Blue Devils. Duke's oppressive defense to open the game applied pressure that UCLA hadn't felt before and as a result, the Bruins were scrambled. So scrambled that they turned the ball over 11 times in the first half alone, and 18 times total, when they're usually a team that averages 12.7 turnovers per game.
Even the tried and true method of firing a pass to senior center Lauren Betts at a height where only she could catch it wasn't working. Duke had the size and tenacity to get an arm up and break those passes down.
That's where Dugalic came in.
At 6'4, she brought an extra dimension of physicality inside the paint that was sorely needed, especially to help Betts.
Betts had been fighting for her life under the basket all game against the grasping hands of the Blue Devils' double and triple teams.
With Dugalic on the floor, there was someone who could swap in with Betts or provide her with extra support.
"She's just so skilled, and she spreads the floor so well," Betts said of Dugalic. "I think tonight I'm just so proud of the confidence and her poise going in the game... she just did all the right things and what we needed at the time."
The Bruins trailed at the half, the first time that had happened since their Nov. 26, 2025 loss to Texas, the lone loss on their record this season.
Their response in the second half was sorely needed and Dugalic was a big part of it.
UCLA Bruins forward Angela Dugalić (32) drives to the basket against Duke Blue Devils forward Delaney Thomas (12) during the second quarter in the Sacramento Regional 4 of the women's 2026 NCAA Tournament at the Golden 1 Center.
Ed Szczepanski-Imagn Images
UCLA Bruins forward Angela Dugalić (32) drives to the basket against Duke Blue Devils forward Delaney Thomas (12) during the second quarter in the Sacramento Regional 4 of the women's 2026 NCAA Tournament at the Golden 1 Center.
UCLA scored nine unanswered points, with the biggest shot of the night being a three from the top of the arc by senior guard Gianna Kneepkens , her first of the game, to give UCLA it's first lead since the first minute of the game. Dugalic's contributions to both the run and the game as a whole wasn't just her size, it was her grit.
She had the willingness, maybe more than anyone else on the team, to fight her way the wall of defenders in her path and even knocking some down in the process. It was the mentality that was lacking in UCLA in the beginning of the game, but with the Big Ten Sixth Player of the Year setting the tone, everyone else soon followed suit.
"I even told the girls during timeouts and halftimes, 'We have to be the ones who are more aggressive," Dugalic said. "I just had the mentality of, 'If they can be that aggressive, then why not us be that aggressive with them?"
Betts may have led the team with 23 points, but it was Dugalic's 15 points that really turned the tide.
Duke wasn't fully out of the game when it shifted, but their momentum was gone. They knew it, the Bruins knew it and the Golden 1 Center, which sounded like Pauley Pavilion by the end, knew it too.
UCLA padded their lead more and more until the final seconds hit and they took the game 70-58 to advance to the Final Four for the second-straight season.
After the game, UCLA head coach Cori Close was just as struck by Dugalic's toughness as her teammates were. Close has coached Dugalic since 2021 and she knows an X-factor when she sees one.
"It was palpable, wasn't it? ... You could just tell there was an aggression about her that was just special," Close said. "I was trying to find different ways to get rest for people and the physicality of that, but I just thought that Angela was in a zone and I needed to use my timeouts to rest her and shorten the subbing rotation because I could just see it in her eyes."
