How To Watch: South Carolina vs UCLA

South Carolina's Women's Basketball team looks to continue their quest for a second straight national title when they play the UCLA Bruins on Saturday.

Author:
Andrew Lyon
Publish date:
Mar 25, 2023 1:41 PM EDT

Dawn Staley and the South Carolina Gamecocks made it through the first weekend of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament unscathed, disposing of the Norfolk State Spartans and the South Florida Bulls in the process. Beginning today, however, the road to another national title will only become tougher, as they'll be faced with a rematch against the UCLA Bruins later this afternoon.

The Bruins had to win a rare shootout against the Oklahoma Sooners to advance to the Sweet Sixteen, but are a team that won't be phased easily by the Gamecocks, due to what happened between both squads back on November 29th of last year. In their previous meeting, UCLA shockingly lead for the majority of the game, and only lost by nine to South Carolina, due to them holding the Gamecocks to less than 40 percent shooting from the floor and also putting up a respectable fight on the glass, losing the rebounding margin by just six.

Based on the makeup of UCLA's roster and play-style, Aliyah Boston and the Gamecocks will need to come ready for another 40-minute knockdown drag out with the Bruins. While Bruins don't match up with South Carolina's height at the top of the roster, with no players being listed at 6'5 or taller, the Bruins do offer height in numbers, as they have five players whose height is listed between 6'2 and 6'4.

If there's a way for a team to knock off South Carolina, it would be by effectively "mucking things up" on the defensive end, something that UCLA prides themselves on, as they only give up an average of 61.75 points per game, and out of their 9 losses this season, seven of them were by 7 points or less. The key to the Gamecocks advancing past UCLA and getting to the Elite Eight is to not allow the Bruins to dictate how the game progresses, much like they did against the Ole Miss Rebels back in the regular season, a game which went to overtime and nearly served as their first loss in almost a year.

If South Carolina plays their game and stays the aggressor, they should get the chance to play for another Final Four on Monday.