UCLA - University of California - Los Angeles
04/04/2025 | News release | Distributed by Public on 04/04/2025 12:35
Get ready for the Final Four! Bruins are just a step away from the championship game
For the first time in its history, the UCLA women's basketball team will compete in the Final Four of the NCAA tournament. And Bruin fans are invited to watch.
Beginning at 6 p.m. on April 4, Pauley Pavilion will open its doors for a free public watch party as the No. 1-seed Bruins (34-2) take on the No. 2-seed University of Connecticut Huskies (35-3) at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida.The game kicks off at 6:30 p.m. (Request tickets here.) Fans who can't make it to Pauley can watch live on ESPN.
The winner will face either the University of Texas or the University of South Carolina - also playing April 4 - in the NCAA championship game championship game on Sunday, April 6.
The Bruins' exceptional run through the tournament has included wins over Southern University, the University of Richmond, the University of Mississippi and Louisiana State University.
A season to remember
The tourney performance caps one of the most extraordinary seasons in team history, in which the Bruins won the Big Ten conference title and reached 30 or more wins for the first time, and in which head coach Cori Close collected the Naismith Coach of the Year Award, along with 2024-25 coach of the year honors from the Associated Press, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and the Women's Basketball Coaches Association. Close, now in her 14th season, also topped 300 wins this season and is the winningest coach in program history.
Read UCLA Magazine's 2017 profile of Close.
It has also been a season of top honors for players as well, with Lauren Betts named the Naismith Women's Defensive Player of the Year and the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and Janiah Barker earning the conference Sixth Player of the Year award.
Remembering the women's 1978 national championship
It was nearly 50 years ago that the UCLA women's basketball program captured its first - and, so far, only - national championship, in an era before the NCAA tournament existed. That historic team included groundbreaking players like Ann Meyers Drysdale, Denise Curry and Anita Ortega and was led by legendary head coach Billie Moore for their take on the situation. Read more about them in UCLA Magazine.