It’s been a season to remember for the UCLA women’s basketball team. The Bruins outlasted Louisiana State University, 72–65, Sunday in Spokane, Washington, to punch their ticket to the NCAA tournament’s Final Four.
The Bruins (34-2) and the University of South Carolina, who beat Duke University on Sunday, have now advanced to the semifinals.
Next up, UCLA will face the winner of Monday’s Elite Eight showdown between the USC Trojans and the University of Connecticut, while South Carolina will go against the victor in Monday’s contest between the University of Texas and Texas Christian University.
Both Final Four games are scheduled for Friday, April 4, at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida. The Bruins will play at either 4 p.m. or 6:30 p.m. PT.
The tournament’s championship game will take place Sunday, April 6.
Against LSU, the No. 1–ranked Bruins, in their third appearance in the tournament’s Elite Eight (previously in 1999 and 2018), registered their seventh win in a row and improved their all-time tournament record to 29–19.
To reach the Final Four, UCLA has beaten Southern University, the University of Richmond, the University of Mississippi and LSU.
The best season in the history of UCLA women’s basketball
Now in her 14th season, head coach Cori Close has piloted UCLA to its first season with 30 or more wins and was named the 2024–25 coach of the year by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association. This season was the seventh in the past eight years that she has led the Bruins to the tournament’s Sweet 16.
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. Read more about them in UCLA Magazine.
