Gabriela Jaquez’s parents, Angela and Jamie Jaquez Sr., are pleased to see their children pursue their own paths through basketball.
Miami Heat star Jaime Jaquez helped the UCLA Bruins reach the NCAA Final Four in 2021.
Similarly, on March 30, his sister, Gabriela, took it further. She scored 18 points and grabbed 8 rebounds, leading UCLA to a win over LSU in the Elite Eight.
This victory sent UCLA to its first-ever women’s basketball Final Four.
Well, UCLA last reached the Final Four in 1979, when the women’s tournament was still governed by the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW).
Gabriela Jaquez Follows A Family Tradition Of Athletic Achievement
Gabriela Jaquez is from Camarillo, California, and she started her basketball journey at Adolfo Camarillo High School.
Her mother, Angela Jaquez, was a basketball player at Concordia University.
After her athletic career, she transitioned into real estate and has been a licensed agent since 2006.
Her father, Jaime Jaquez Sr., also played football at Concordia University.
Having attended the same university, Gabriela’s parents, Jamie Jaquez Sr. and Angela Jaquez, met and had a life-long athletic commitment.
Looking back at history, Jaimito, as his family calls him, is the first Jaquez to reach the highest level of professional sports, although others in the family came close to making it big.
In 1964, Gabriela’s grandfather, Ezequiel Jaquez Jr., played baseball at Ventura College, but his mother, LucÃa, didn’t want him to play football because she feared he might get hurt.
Instead, Ezequiel, who grew over 6 feet tall, found his passion in basketball.
His skills on the court earned him a scholarship to Arizona State College in Flagstaff, now known as Northern Arizona University.
Gabriela Jaquez Proudly Represents Mexican Roots To FIBA Success
As kids, the Jaquez siblings- Jamie, Gabriela, and Marco frequently traveled to Mexico, spending time with their grandmother’s extended family in Zapotlanejo.
Jaime Sr. deeply values the importance of names. He explained that in Mexican tradition, the firstborn son is named “Junior.”
He wanted his children to have Spanish names, such as Marcos, Gabriela, and Jaime, as he believes naming them this way is an essential foundation for their identity.
“The name for me is very important,” Jaime Sr. says. “Jaime’s my name, and in the Mexican tradition, the firstborn [son] is going to be Junior. I wanted my kids to have names in Spanish. Marcos, Gabriela, Jaime. For me, that’s the foundation.”
Jamie Jaquez Sr.
Eventually, Gabriela represented Mexico’s national basketball team and debuted in August during the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2026 pre-qualifying tournament.
Under the leadership of head coach Lindsey Harding, also an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers, Gabriela helped guide Mexico to the semifinals, finishing as the top scorer across all teams with an average of 21.8 points per game.
At 21-year-old and still in college, Gabriela is focused on following her older brother’s path and becoming one of the few players of Mexican descent to play in the WNBA.
In Case You Didn’t Know
- A key contributor to UCLA’s success, Jaquez averaged 10.0 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game coming off the bench.
- She appeared in 34 games, starting six, and played 25.2 minutes per game in 2024.
- She recorded her first career 30-point game with 30 points and 12 rebounds against Bellarmine on Nov. 12.
