UCLA women's basketball set to match up with powerhouse UConn in December
A battle between one of the best programs on the West Coast and the undisputed champion of the East Coast has been booked.
UCLA women's basketball will travel to Newark, New Jersey, to face off against UConn on Dec. 11 in the Never Forget Tribute Classic at the Prudential Center. The Bruins and Huskies most recently played in the 2019 Sweet 16, and UConn emerged with the 69-61 win.
Before that, UConn came to Pauley Pavilion on Nov. 21, 2017, to cut UCLA's momentum short just a few days after the Bruins beat then-No. 2 Baylor. The Huskies beat the Bruins in the prior season's Sweet 16 as well.
UCLA has gone up against UConn a total of four times since coach Cori Close was hired in 2011, and she is winless against coach Geno Auriemma in those head-to-head matchups. The Huskies won their only two games versus the Bruins prior to Close's arrival.
There are still a handful of players left on both teams who were active in the Nov. 2017 and March 2019 games between UCLA and UConn. Then-freshman guard Kayla Owens played two minutes and recorded a single rebound for the Bruins in the 2017 matchup, while her classmate Chantel Horvat put up eight points with a steal, a block and a rebound across 27 minutes.
Neither played in the 2019 Sweet 16, as Horvat missed the final 26 games of that season with an injury. Then-freshman guard Kiara Jefferson averaged 14.0 minutes per game that year, but played just one against the Huskies and did not record a single statistic.
UConn guard Christyn Williams and forward Olivia Nelson-Ododa were freshmen on that 2019 Sweet 16 team. Williams posted 14 points, three assists and four rebounds while Nelson-Ododa came off the bench to the tune of two points, two blocks and one rebound in the win.
The Huskies have won an NCAA-record 11 national championships and have been to 23 of the last 25 Final Fours. The Bruins have never made it past the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament, but their six-straight top-15 finishes in the postseason AP poll demonstrate their ability to hang with the best.
The game will be televised nationally on ABC, with tip-off scheduled for 10 a.m. Tickets are slated to go on sale Sept. 10 at 7 a.m.
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