As blue and yellow confetti rained down in Phoenix, one Ms. Colorado Basketball pulled in another for a long hug, while yet another stood feet away on the arena stage.
In that moment, the trio of ex-Grandview superstars — Lauren Betts, her younger sister Sienna Betts and UCLA assistant coach Michaela Onyenwere — soaked in the Bruins’ run to the national championship after asserting the potency of Colorado women’s basketball in primetime.
For Lauren, her performance was an exclamation point on a stellar college career that saw her emerge as one of the country’s best players. For Sienna, the season was a prelude to greater things to come. And for Onyenwere, it was a full-circle moment that was easy to believe for those who have tracked the trio since their days dominating high school courts across Colorado.
“Lauren came up to me on the stage and she was like, ‘Michaela, we did it. We won a natty together,’ Onyenwere said.
“Lauren would come to my high school games and she would watch me play, and then both her and Sienna going to the same high school as me, all of us winning (multiple Ms. Colorado Basketball and Gatorade Player of the Year) awards, and now for all three of us to be on that stage accepting the trophy for a Division I national title — it was surreal for us to experience that together.”
An unstoppable force on the court
Lauren had a double-double in the Bruins’ on Sunday, April 5, scoring 14 points with 11 rebounds en route to earning the NCAA Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. Sienna, a consistent contributor off the bench in 2025-26 despite missing the first part of the season due to tallied four rebounds in the first quarter of the title before a badly sprained ankle knocked her out of the game.
And Onyenwere, the UCLA alum and 2021 WNBA Rookie of the Year who is entering her sixth season in the league, proved to be a key addition to as a hands-on assistant who did everything from scouting to player development to scrimmaging against the starters in practice.
“We were teasing (Onyenwere) in the locker room (after winning the title) and she was really emotional,” Close said in the presser after beating South Carolina. “(Associate head coach) coach Tony (Newnan) was like, ‘About time (we won), we just had to get some better players.’ We were just giving her a hard time.
“… I didn’t know that she was going to be such a dang good coach. She’s really good. She’s probably got a long pro career that she’s going to live out first, but this was even better experiencing this with her than I thought.”
While Onyenwere was a driving force outside the court, Lauren became the Bruins’ unstoppable force on it.
Her college career began with a lost year at Stanford, where she struggled to acclimate both as an athlete and an individual. That led to her transfer to UCLA, but even when she arrived in Westwood, she lacked confidence and wondered whether she wanted to keep playing.
Throughout that time, she remained bogged down by a battle with depression. So much so that during her sophomore year, she checked herself into the hospital and took a leave of absence from the team.
In an essay , Lauren called her mental health “an ongoing project.” But after helping lead her team to the title in Phoenix, she also recognized the impact of being open about her struggles.
“Basketball has given me the platform to change people’s lives,” Lauren said . “I was put on this earth not just to score points, but to help people. I’ve gone through my journey because other people have experienced the same thing, and I’m always going to speak my truth, because I know it’s going to help people.”
Now, Lauren is widely projected to be a top pick in the upcoming WNBA Draft.
ESPN’s latest mock has her going to the Washington Mystics. And while she gears up for her professional career, those closest to Sienna believe the younger sister is about to step out of her sister’s spotlight again, much like how Sienna did at Grandview after Lauren headed to college.
“This year wasn’t the role that Sienna anticipated or wanted (averaging 14.1 minutes per game), but she stayed positive, she stuck with it, and when she had the chance to play, she did really well,” said the sisters’ dad, Andy Betts, who played professionally overseas.
“Next year is going to be her coming-out party, and everyone who might’ve forgotten about her, they’ll see. She’s going to be able to show her full game and full potential at this level.”
Putting Colorado on the map
While the senior Lauren was the face of a stacked Bruins team that is likely to set a WNBA record for the most players drafted from one school in one class in league history, Sienna got to share in Lauren’s limelight in their one collegiate season together.
The two appeared together on the and also starred in that ran this season, featuring a cameo by their mom, Michelle Betts. The commercial was filmed in the UCLA gym at Pauley Pavilion.
“I’ve done a whole lot of crying with pride this year, because they’ve done so many amazing things together,” Michelle Betts said.
Lauren said Sienna “understood the moment” when the younger Betts checked into the national championship game. The win over South Carolina was a deja vu title moment, albeit on a much bigger stage, as the sisters also won the CHSAA Class 5A crown when Lauren was a senior and Sienna was a freshman.
“For her to get crucial rebounds, go up against really strong (South Carolina) bigs, that’s huge as a freshman. I’m just really proud of her,” Lauren said. She also told the ESPN telecast that Sienna “made this season my favorite season I’ve ever experienced.”
For Onyenwere, who Close recruited to coach this season instead of going to play in Europe, believes her and the Betts’ role in the Bruins’ first national championship was another significant stamp on the girls basketball legacy of a state that has produced top-end Division I players in droves over the past four decades.
“There has been times where Colorado has been deemed not a basketball state and we’ve been overlooked, or not recruited as much as we should have (as a whole),” Onyenwere said. “But this feat, it definitely communicates not to sleep on Colorado women…. I’m just really proud to represent Colorado, represent Grandview, represent this university and do it alongside two other really talented Colorado women.”
