UCLA Women's Basketball: Bruins Advance to Sweet 16

Eva Geitheim | Mar 26, 2024

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UCLA women's basketball is heading to the NCAA Sweet 16 for the second season in a row. The No. 2 Bruins began March Madness play this weekend, dominantly defeating No. 15 Cal Baptist with a 84-55 win. On Monday, the Bruins earned their second win of the tournament, taking down No. 7 Creighton 67-63 at Pauley Pavilion, to claim their spot in the Sweet 16.

Kiki Rice and Lauren Betts were fantastic for the Bruins against Creighton. Lauren Betts proved hard to stop once again, recording a double-double with 20 points, 10 rebounds and three assists. Rice proved instrumental in scoring, leading the Bruins with 24 points, six rebounds, and three assists. Gabriela Jacquez also came up big in rebounding, putting up 11 rebounds, eight points, and three assists.

The game was also special as it was the Bruins' last game in Pauley Pavilion this season. It was also the final home game ever for Charisma Osborne, who has been one of the top Bruins throughout her collegiate career.

Now, the Bruins will try and get past the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2018, when they made it to the Elite Eight. However, UCLA has a tough opponent in front of them: LSU. The Bruins will have to take on the reigning NCAA Tournament champions for a shot at advancing to the top eight teams. While UCLA has had a better overall season than LSU and comes into this game with a better seeding than No. 3 LSU, the Tigers are battling and have gone all the way in March Madness, just last year.

If UCLA is able to get a win this Saturday, they'll go on to face the winner of Iowa and Colorado, which means a potential matchup against Caitlin Clark. All in all, this tournament is stacked with great teams, including UCLA.