NCAA basketball: UCLA’s Charlisse Leger-Walker becomes first Kiwi to win women’s national championship

Charlisse Leger-Walker won the NCAA women's national championship with UCLA. Photo / Getty Images

Charlisse Leger-Walker has ended her collegiate career in the United States in the best possible manner.

After a knee injury saw her miss out on the entire 2024-25 season, the Kiwi guard will end her college career as a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) champion.

Leger-Walker scored 10 points as the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) won the women’s division one championship with a 79-51 win over South Carolina on Monday morning. It was UCLA’s first women’s championship.

The road to the national championship was a long one for the 24-year-old college senior from Hamilton, who transferred to UCLA from Washington State University ahead of the 2024-25 season, but did not play as she was rehabilitating an ACL injury.

“Reflecting back on the past two years, coming back from an injury, everything that I’ve had to do to get to this point is surreal and I could not be prouder of the group of girls that I get to celebrate this with because everybody has sacrificed so much to be here and they’re amazing,” Leger-Walker told ESPN.

She played a key role in the team’s title charge this season as a lead guard in the team.

In the final, Leger-Walker played 26 minutes, scoring 10 points on 4-12 shooting to go with four rebounds and two assists.

Speaking about her decision to transfer to UCLA, Leger-Walker indicated that having the chance to win a national title was a big part of her choice.

“Elite players want to play with other elite players, and when you come into a programme where you all understand the talent you have but then collectively buy in,” Leger-Walker told ESPN of her decision to transfer.

“That is the biggest theme of this year and everything we’ve talked about every day.”

The 24-year-old becomes the first Kiwi woman to win the national championship, and just the second Kiwi to do so after Jack Salt won the 2019 championship with Virginia.

Having now completed her final year of eligibility at the collegiate level, Leger-Walker is set to enter the WNBA draft and be available for selection when teams are on the clock next week.

New Zealand could have another national champion before the season is through, with Taranaki’s Oscar Goodman and his University of Michigan side playing in the men’s final against the University of Connecticut (UConn) on Tuesday.