Gabriela Jaquez: a “pride to represent Mexico” with UCLA

The basketball player of Mexico Gabriela Jaquez already made history with UCLA in taking the program in the end Four. Now, it goes after an unpublished championship.

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During the summer, Gabriela Jaquez I was looking to make history in the Mexico City. As a brand -new Mexican selected at 21, its goal was to put the country into the country FIBA World, same that will be held in 2026. That goal remains intact. Meanwhile, with UCLA, The university where he celebrates his third season, is also very close to leaving an indelible mark: the first NCAA championship of the school.

Jaquez scored 18 points (the upper brand of the game) in the previous quarterfinal duel (Elite 8) Before lsu, including a triple key that assured UCLA victory, and now has them facing them with Uconna titan of the collegial game that has been champion eleven times. Before such a serious test, Gabriela and her companions maintain equanimity, enjoying being in the Final Four for the first time in their lives.

“We are super grateful to have this opportunity, but at the same time, we understand that we have not finished. We have more games to play, and more teams to compete,” Jaquez said in an interview with AM850 Digital.

Californiana by birth is part of a spectacular trident next to Lauren Betts and Kiki Rice, her companions and friends who led UCLA to be qualified as The number one team of the United States Collegiate Basketball During the current season. With a record of 34 won and just two losses, the Bruins started with 23 consecutive victories, and took revenge on USC, who granted them their only two losses in the year, by beating them in the Big Ten conference championship.

Now, after beating Southern, Richmond, Ole Miss and LSU during March Madnessas colloquially known to the NCAA championship tournament, Jaquez and his team are in the prelude to Glory, in a match that will be played on Friday (9:00 pm Et/6: 00 PM PT per AM850).

“We have had many challenges this season, playing against South Carolina, against USC three times,” said Jaquez. “I am very excited to have more opportunities to play against good players, good teams with great coaches,” he continued.

Wants to continue representing Mexico

Even while preparing an unpublished moment with UCLA with the attention firmly on a first championship for his university, Gabriela does not forget Mexico, where he played this summer and where he plans to return after finishing the school year.

“Playing for Mexico last summer was a great opportunity,” Gabriela said. “And having the support of all the people who came to see us in Mexico City meant everything for me. I feel very proud to represent them (with UCLA),” the escort continued, who also belongs to the University’s softball team.

While most people who follow Gabriela know about his brother, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Who also shone with UCLA and is now an important part of the Miami Heat at NBA level, the player also reserves praise for the rest of her family, which stands out in basketball for several generations.

His grandfather Ezequiel, son of Mexican migrants, played basketball at the collegiate level in California and Arizona, while his father, Jaime Mr.he also played in Concordia Universitywhere he met his future wife and basketball star, Angela. While playing in Concordia, Angela averaged 21.4 points per game during the 1997 season, and was elected player of the year at the Golden State conference.

In 2008, Angela was chosen to form the Hall of Fame in Concordia.

“My mother was a great basketball player, in fact she received an invitation to play in the first season of the WNBA,” Gabriela said. “I have never seen her play, we cannot find videos of her games, but her friends constantly tell me that I play like her, and it makes me laugh because I have never been able to see her, but I very much appreciate the support that my mother gives me during my career,” he continued.

The distant dream, the wnba

In the future, perhaps, Gabriela can fulfill that pending dream of Angela and the rest of the Jaquez family: reach the WNBA. This situation would also mean that Jaime and Gabriela would become just the seventh pair of brothers to play in the NBA and WNBA – and they would be the first of Mexican roots to achieve it in the entire history of both leagues.

For now, Gabriela focuses on that word that is constantly in her vocabulary since the previous summer: history. Although UCLA won the AIAW Championship in 1978, and the 2014-15 team conquered the WNIT, considered a lower tournament than NCAA’s, this would be the first time in 51 years that the Bruins could reach the top of the Collegiate Basketball mountain.

The reality is that, perhaps there is no better opportunity to achieve it. With Betts, Jaquez and Rice leading the team, UCLA already broke his historic victories record in a season and went further in the NCAA tournament than any other cast of the University. Betts won the award of the defensive player of the year, and the coach, Cori Close, was voted as the coach of the year.

In front of them, there is another historical milestone, since UConn is the team that has won the tournament in history with eleven titles. Moreover, just two universities in the state of California, USC and Stanford, have managed to win the championship, so UCLA approaches a glorious appointment.

First of all this preamble, the pressure in tampa, Florida, will rise to the maximum. But Gabriela Jaquez, the young Mexico American who loads with the label of making history at the collegiate level and national team, smiles first of all and recalled that before LSU, when he guided UCLA to victory, the management of emotions was key, just as he will have to be before Uconn.

“I suppose attention to the fans in the sand, it is inevitable,” said Gabriela. “But I don’t let me consume me, and I keep calm. When you get excited because you score a triple and forces that the other team marks a while outside, we are excited. But you calm down, and go out again to play. At the end of the day, so is basketball,” he concluded.